Proper bathing and diet are as essential after as before confinement. At least once a day the patient requires a bath. Ordinarily use tepid water. Sponge and dry a portion of the body at a time, keeping the balance protected. If there is heat in the back, bathe it several times a day. Should the patient be nervous and uneasy, try dry hand friction. A compress, too, is often serviceable, worn across the back for two or three hours, followed by bathing and rubbing. The breasts should be bathed frequently, and the colder the water the better. This prevents sensitiveness to cold, and may consequently prevent gathered breasts. Three to five days after confinement the patient can be put into a sitz-bath with benefit. Let the temperature of the water be from 85° to 95°. This bath is restful, cleansing and restorative, and is really as beneficial after as before parturition. A woman can often sit in a bath for a few moments when the same time spent in a chair would prove injurious. Change the linen of bed and person daily, and the napkins every three or four hours. Keep the room light and well ventilated. The temperature of the room should never exceed 70°. A few years since not a ray of light or a breath of fresh air was allowed in the parturient room, and if the woman was to touch cold water, it was deemed sure death. In some parts of this country, within twenty years, the bed even was not changed for nine days after confinement. With frequent bathing and a constant supply of fresh air the patient will not be sensitive to cold, and inflammation and other post partum diseases will in consequence be rare. The vagina must be syringed at least twice a day with water in which there are a few drops of carbolic acid. Use a fountain syringe, and have the patient recline over a bed pan. Thus the parts will be kept cleansed, and carbolic acid prevents septic poisoning. If the bowels do not move naturally by the third or fourth day, give an enema, one quart of tepid water. The regimen advised in this book having been followed, one will rarely be troubled with constipation. Beware of cathartics. Most of them have a specific action upon the uterus as well as upon the bowels, and will do harm. This is notably the case with aloes and podophyllum. The _food_ must be simple in character and easy of digestion, especially until after the milk is established. Bran or graham gruel is the _very best food_ the first day or two. Having been withheld from the diet during pregnancy, on account of containing the phosphates which have a tendency to harden the bones, it should now be taken for that very purpose.