Obstetrics for NursesReed, Charles B. (Charles Bert)
Science
Obstetrics for Nurses
Reed, Charles B. (Charles Bert)
Maternity nursing
Some of these cases are doubtless due to a patency or fistulous
condition of the urachus. Usually the separation may be hastened by
touching the constrictured part with silver nitrate. Or, if the cord
does not separate before the second week, it may be desirable to cut off
the hanging fragment and touch the base with silver nitrate or dust with
alum powder.
=Granulations= may protrude like a mulberry from the stump of the navel
(“proud flesh”). These are touched with nitrate of silver stick.
=Menstruation= may appear occasionally from the vulva of the newborn. It
is really a hæmorrhage, a menstrual flow, which is associated with
uterine activity, but rarely significant. There is no treatment. It
disappears spontaneously.
=The breasts of the newborn= may fill with milk and become indurated and
tender. Nothing should be done to them. Let them alone and the swelling
will subside in a few days and the milk (“witches’ milk”) disappear.
=Icterus= may develop from the third to the sixth day. The child becomes
yellow and stays yellow for a week, when the color gradually leaves. It
is thought to be due to the liberation of some embryonic residue in the
fœtus, but nothing is known certainly. For the simple form no treatment
is required. Recovery is prompt and uneventful. However, jaundice is
associated with other conditions that prove fatal, hence every icterus
should be watched carefully until it disappears.
=Child’s Nails.=—The nails are frequently rough and ragged at ends and
sides. They should be smoothly trimmed lest they become infected at the
junction with the skin and give rise to paronychia. If infection does
occur, the skin and flesh may be pushed back with a sterile applicator,
and the point touched with peroxide of hydrogen. A syphilitic history
may be traced in some of the babies.
=Thrush= is a form of contagious soreness, characterized by white flakes
or patches on the mucous membrane of mouth or anus which look like milk,
but can not be wiped off.
It is due to a vegetable fungus and occurs most frequently among anæmic
or poorly nourished babies or those suffering from harelip. It is
associated with symptoms of indigestion.
It may always be prevented by keeping the mouth and nipples clean, as
directed on another page, and by keeping the bottles and rubber nipples
in a solution of boric acid when not in use. When the disease appears,
the mouth must be swabbed three or four times a day with an applicator
soaked in saturated solution of boric acid. This is curative.
=Aphthæ or stomatitis= is the name given to whitish vesicles, followed
by superficial ulcers that occur upon the inside of mouth and lips of
the infant. It is rare in the newborn child. Boric acid solution is
cleansing, and stick alum, frequently applied, will effect a cure.
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