The prospective mother has thought many times, "Will my baby ever come?" But nature is very faithful, prompt, and resourceful. She ushers in this harvest time under great stress and strain, for actual labor is before us--downright, hard labor--just about the hardest work that womankind ever experiences--and, as a rule, she needs but little help--good direction as to the proper method of work and the economical expenditure of energy. In the case of the average mother this is about all that is needed, and if these suggestions come from a wise and sympathetic physician--one who understands and appreciates asepsis--she may count herself as fortunately situated for the oncoming ordeal. In the days of our grandmothers it was almost the exception rather than the rule to escape "child-bed fever," "milk leg," etc.; but in these enlightened days of asepsis, rubber gloves, and the various antiseptics, puerperal infection is the exception, while a normal puerperium is the rule; and this work of prevention lies in the scrupulous care taken by anyone and everyone concerned in any way with the events of the day of labor. On this day of labor, the mother, who has gone through the long tedious days of waiting, should see to it that nothing unclean--hands, sponges, forcep, water, cloth--is allowed to touch her. Above all things do not employ a physician who has earned the reputation of being a "dirty doctor." Puerperal infection is almost wholly a preventable disease and every patient has a right to insist upon protection against it. In a former chapter will be found a detailed description of the "delivery bed." Beside this bed, or near by, are to be found the rack on which are airing the necessary garments for the baby's reception--the receiving blanket and other requisites for the first bath--together with numerous other articles essential to safety and comfort. There should be an easy chair in the room for the mother to rest in between her walking excursions during the first stages of labor. The sterilized pads and necessary articles mentioned in an earlier chapter are, of course, close at hand. FIRST SYMPTOMS OF LABOR Regular, cramp-like pains in the lower portion of the abdomen which are frequently mistaken for intestinal colic, often beginning in the lower part of the back, and extending to the front and down the thigh, are often the first symptoms of the approaching event. With each cramp or pain the abdomen gets very hard and as the pain passes away the abdomen again assumes its normal condition. These regular cramp-like pains are the result of the early dilation of the cervix--the first opening of the door to the uterine room which has housed our little citizen through the developmental stages of embryonic life--and as a result of this stretching and dilating there soon appears that special blood-tinged mucus flow commonly known as "the show." THE PRELIMINARY BATH