CHAPTER VII PREPARATIONS FOR LABOR AND THE NORMAL COURSE OF LABOR =The Nurse.=—Scientific obstetric nursing is a specialty that enlists the interest of exceptional women only. It demands a high sense of duty, a strong physique, broad training, unusual judgment, and rare tact. The nurse must be professionally aseptic and personally clean. She should keep herself free from odors, and bathe at least three times a week. The presence of pus anywhere on her body disqualifies her _at once_, and she should report off duty. The compensation should always be somewhat higher than for other work, because there are two patients to be cared for. An obstetric nurse should specialize in her work, and not take infectious cases. Unhappily the haphazard character of the onset of labor presents a difficulty. The patient frequently can not afford to have the nurse for a long time in advance of labor, and the nurse whose income is limited by the number of her cases can not afford to be idle. Hence, it is better for two nurses to work in alternation with one another, so that one is always available in an emergency. Both doctor and nurse should visit the lying-in room before labor begins, and plan its rearrangement. At least a week before the expected confinement, the chamber selected should be thoroughly cleaned and the woodwork wiped off. Curtains, draperies and bric-a-brac and all useless furniture should be removed. Carpets must be taken up, or at time of confinement, well protected. Rugs can be easily managed. A chair, a bed, and the various tables for instruments and solutions are all that are required. The nurse usually is called to the case first, and upon her falls the responsibility of the diagnosis and the burden of the preparation. As soon as she arrives and satisfies herself that the patient is really in labor, she puts the final touches to the room. In her own mind she goes over all possible emergencies and prepares to meet them. The following supplies should be in the house for the labor: 3 hand basins, 10 inches in diameter. 3 hand brushes. 1 two-quart douche bag. 15 yards nonsterile gauze. 2 lb. each of cotton batting and absorbent cotton for making bed pads. 2 pieces of rubber sheeting 1 by 2 yards. 5–yd. jar of borated gauze. 4 oz. lysol (or ziratol). 100 c.c. of Squibb’s chloroform. 2 oz. green soap. 2 oz. solid albolene. 8 oz. alcohol. ½ oz. ergotol. ½ oz. bismuth subnitrate and ½ oz. boric acid powder mixed. 1 nail file. =Nurse’s outfit consists of the following:= Nail file, surgical scissors, catheter (silver is best), hypodermic syringe with tablets of morphine, strychnine, and digitalis; two fever thermometers, one for mouth and one for rectum; a pair of tissue forceps and a razor.