Headaches should not be allowed to continue unobserved by the attending physician. Measure the daily output of urine, which should be at least three pints or two quarts. In case of daily or frequent headaches, notify your physician at once and take a twenty-four hour specimen of urine to him. Headache is an early symptom of retained poisons and if early reported to the physician quick relief can be given the patient and often severe kidney complications be avoided by the proper administration of early sweating procedures. Water drinking should be increased to two quarts (about ten glasses) a day. Less food and more water are the usual indications in the headaches of pregnancy. HIGH BLOOD-PRESSURE Blood-pressure is called _high_ when the systolic pressure registers above 150 to 160 millimeters of mercury. Pressure above 165 should be taken seriously and the patient should keep in close touch with her physician. Tri-weekly examinations of the urine should be made, while eliminating baths should be promptly instituted. The subject of blood-pressure in relation to pregnancy will be fully dealt with in the next chapter--in connection with toxemia, eclampsia, etc. CHAPTER VI TOXEMIA AND ITS SYMPTOMS At the close of the preceding chapter on the complications of pregnancy, brief mention was made of blood-pressure as a possible source of anxiety. This chapter will be devoted to a further discussion of the subjects of toxemia, eclampsia, convulsions, and especially blood-pressure--in connection with other leading symptoms of these serious complications of pregnancy. TOXIC SYMPTOMS In a former chapter we learned that the developing child nearly doubled its weight in the last two months of pregnancy. As the child grows, its metabolic waste matter is greatly increased, while all these poisonous substances must finally be eliminated by the mother. Now, the mother's waste matter is of itself considerably increased; and so, if the kidneys, the liver, and the skin are already over-taxed in their work of normal elimination--if they are already doing their full quota of work--we can readily see that the additional waste matter of the unborn child will throw much extra work on the already overworked eliminative organs, and this results in a condition of toxemia. Certain symptoms accompany this state of constitutional poisoning or auto-intoxication--the chief of which are: 1. Headache. 2. Dizziness. 3. Blurring of the vision. 4. Swelling of the feet and hands, or puffiness of the face. 5. Diminished urine. 6. Vomiting. 7. High blood-pressure. 8. Albumin and casts in the urine. Any one of these symptoms may or may not indicate toxemia; but it should be reported at once to the attending physician. In the presence of one or more of these symptoms an expectant mother is always safe, while awaiting the physician's advice, in carrying out the following program: