II. SHE ought to _stir_ often, and exercise herself _moderately_, without _stooping_ or _bending_ the Body too much, lest the _UMBILICALS_ may entangle the _Infant_. III. SHE should discreetly rest herself at certain Times, and indulge herself in composing _Sleep_; lying altogether on her BACK, not on either _Side_, that the INFANT may freely turn itself. IV. FROM the _tenth Day_, proper Emollient and Laxative _Decoctions_ by way of BATHS, may necessarily be used twice or thrice a _Week_, for moistening the _Passages_, and facilitating the BIRTH: Or otherwise, the BELLY and proper _Parts_ need only be fomented with _Cloths_, or _Spunges_ dipp’d in such _Decoctions_, and the neighbouring _Places_ anointed with apposite _Liniments_ or requisite _Ointments_: But no _Laconick_ or _Sweating_ BATHS or BAGNIO’S, ought to be used at this _Juncture_; notwithstanding some contrary _Opinions_. V. THE _Infant_ is to be cherish’d, and strengthen’d by proper _Cordials_ inwardly taken, as well as by outward _Applications_. VI. THE _Room_ or _Chamber_ in which the Woman is to undergo her TRAVAIL and _Lying-In_, ought to be conveniently _temperate_, neither too _cold_ nor too _hot_: By reason that the _one_ certainly constringes and shuts the WOMB; as the _other_ dissipates and debilitates the _Spirits_. In short, I have known _Women_, who have often had most painful, lingring, and laborious BIRTHS before; to have been LAID _afterwards_ with the greatest Ease imaginable in a very short time, by only carefully observing the _above-prescrib’d REGIMEN_. Wherefore I shall take leave to go on farther, to [Illustration] CHAP. XL. _Of the Natural Causes of BIRTH, and Pains of LABOUR._ THE _Causes_ of a _Legitimate_ or timely natural _Birth_, are chiefly _Three_; viz. I. The suppressed or defective _Respiration_, by the encreasing _Calidity_ of the HEART; which defatigates the INFANT so much, that it cannot live without more free _Ventilation_. II. PENURY or _Scarcity_ of ALIMENT; the INFANT now requiring _More_ than it can possibly imbibe from the _Mother_; and therefore it is forced to seek, what _Nourishment_ it farther requires, Elsewhere.