X. FINALLY, as the _Child-Bed-Woman_’s Body is always to be kept open, if not otherways naturally so, by a proper gentle _CLYSTER_, repeated as often as Necessity requires, until the _Course_ of the LOCHIA is quite over; so afterwards she ought to take one or more proper gentle PURGES, for cleansing the _Stomach_ and the _Bowels_ of such vitious _Humours_, as _Nature_ could not otherways evacuate: Upon which, a repeated Strengthening _BATH_ may be most pertinently used, as also, in order that she may again the more successfully _begin upon a new Score_, other proper Measures may be prudently taken. THUS we suppose that all things have succeeded well with our _Puerperial Woman_; in which Condition the above-mention’d is her only requisite _REGIMEN_: But in Case of any _Preternatural Accident_, we must come to her _Assistance_, according as the Nature of _Circumstances_ does require: Of all which in their Order, as they most commonly happen to the _Woman_ in her present _Condition_; and FIRST—— [Illustration] CHAP. II. _Of the AFTER-PAINS._ THESE PAINS, which usually accompany or follow after the _BIRTH_, are common to all _Child-Bed-Women_; and in that _Natural Sense_, as they proceed only from the quantity of _BLOOD_ abounding in the relaxed Womb, distending its _MEMBRANES_, or arise from its _Acrimony_; so they gradually cease, and in two or three days quite vanish: Wherefore I am not to insist upon _Those_, which only affect the debilitated WOMB. BUT it often and too commonly also happens, that another Sort, justly call’d _Preternatural AFTER-PAINS_, afflict the _Woman_; which she sometimes feels about her _Loins_ and her _Groins_, sometimes about the _Navel_, sometimes all over the _Belly_, and sometimes in the WOMB only, and that sometimes with a little, and sometimes without any _Intermission_. THE most common _Cause_ of which _PAINS_ is generally one of the _Five_ following; _Viz._ 1. The _External AIR_, especially the more _frigid_, which easily penetrates into the WOMB, if not carefully prevented: 2. _Clotted BLOOD_, or some other _foreign Body_ left behind in the WOMB: 3. Some _Acrid_, and _Mordacious_ BLOOD adhering to the WOMB, which excites and stimulates _Excretion_: 4. The _SERUM_ vellicating or twitching the _excoriated_ part of the WOMB: Or, 5. _WINDS_ elevated from the _Humours_ fermenting in its _Substance_; which, together with those turgent _Humours_, tear its tender _TUNICKS_. NOW because these PAINS often excruciate the _Woman_ as much as the _real_ LABOUR-PAINS do, and since they are not always without _Danger_, Necessity demands that they should be either _cured_, or at least _mitigated_: Which may be most properly done, by convenient relaxing and attenuating _Medicines_ outwardly applied, as well as inwardly taken, when the _Case_ does not require the _Hand-Cure_, or manual Operation.