Preparations for the Natal Day : Part 2

The Mother and Her Child
by William S. Sadler, M.D., Lena K. Sadler, M.D.

(Page 8 of 41)

The Nurse

After selecting the place of confinement, the question of the nurse may next be considered. If it is to be the hospital, you need give little further thought to the nurse, for your physician will arrange for the nurse at the time you enter the hospital. She will be a part of the complete service you may enjoy. You will find her on duty as you, quietly resting in your room, awaken in the sweet satisfaction that at last it is all over - at last your baby is here.

A competent nurse is a necessity, if the confinement takes place in the home. She may be a visiting nurse, who, for a small fee, will not only come on the day of labor, but will make what is known as "post-partum calls" each day for ten or twelve days. These are short calls, but are long enough to clean up the mother and wash and dress the babe. She is not supposed to prepare any meals or care for the home. Then there is the practical nurse - women who have prepared themselves along these lines of nursing, whose fees range from $12.00 to $18.00 a week. If your physician recommends one to you, you may know she is clean and dependable. The trained nurse, who has graduated from a three years' course of training, is prepared for every emergency, and will intelligently work with the physician for the patient's welfare and comfort. Her fees range from $25.00 to $35.00 a week.

Both the practical and the trained nurses are human beings, and require rest and sleep the same as all other women do. One nurse, after having faithfully remained at her post of duty some sixty hours reminded the husband and sister of the patient that she must now have five hours of unbroken rest and they replied in a most surprised manner, "Why we are paying you $30.00 a week, and besides, we understood you were a trained nurse."

The physician usually makes arrangement with the family for competent relief for the nurse. She should have at least one to two hours of each day for an airing, and six hours out of the twenty-four for sleep.

The Preparation of the Supplies

1. The sanitary pad is used to absorb the bodily fluid after confinement, and needs to be changed many times during the day and night; fully five or six dozen will be required. They are usually made from cotton batting and a generous layer of absorbent cotton. If made entirely from absorbent cotton they mat down into a rope-like condition. They are four and one-half to five inches wide and ten inches long. The sterile cheesecloth is cut large enough to wrap around the cotton filling and extends at both ends three inches, by which it is fastened to the abdominal binder. With a dozen or fifteen in each package these vulva pads are wrapped loosely in pieces of old sheets and pinned securely and marked plainly on the outside.

2. Delivery pads. These pads should be thirty-six inches square and about five inches thick, three or four inches of which may be the cotton batting and the remainder absorbent cotton. Three of these are needed. Each should be folded, wrapped in a piece of cloth and likewise marked.

3. Gauze squares. Five dozen gauze squares about four inches in size may be cut, wrapped and marked. These are needed for the nipples, baby's eyes, etc.

4. Cotton pads. These are cotton balls, made as you would a light biscuit with the twist of the cotton to hold it in shape. They should be about the size of the bottom of a teacup. These are thrown in a couple of pillow slips and wrapped and marked.

5. The Bobbin. Cut the bobbin or tape into four nine-inch lengths and wrap and mark.

6. The tooth picks are left in the original package and do not require sterilization.

7. Sterilization. Before steaming and baking, wrap each bundle in another wrapping of cloth and pin again securely. Mark each package plainly in large letters or initials. These packages may be sent to the hospital for sterilization in the autoclave or they may be steamed for one hour in the large wash boiler, by placing them loosely into a hammock-like arrangement made by suspending a firm piece of muslin from one handle of the boiler to the other. The center of the hammock should come to within five inches of the bottom of the boiler which contains three inches of boiling water. The cover of the boiler is now securely weighed down and the water boils hard for one hour, at the end of which time they are removed and placed in a warm oven to dry out. The outer wrapping may be slightly tinged with brown by this baking. After a thorough drying they are allowed to remain in the same wrappings into which they were first placed and put away in a clean drawer awaiting the "Natal Day."

Requisites for the Hospital

Each hospital has its own methods and regulations for caring for obstetrical patients and it is well for the expectant mother to visit the obstetrical section, the delivery-room and the baby's room, that she may personally know more about the place where she is to spend from ten days to two weeks. Here she may ascertain from the superintendent just what she will need to bring for the baby. Many of the hospitals furnish all the clothes needed for the baby while in the hospital; in such instances, the hospital also launders them. Other hospitals require the baby's clothes to be brought in, in which case the mother looks after the laundry. The mother always takes her toilet articles, a warm bed jacket with long sleeves, several night dresses and a large loose kimono or wrapper to wear to the roof garden or porch in the wheel chair. Warm bedroom slippers and a scarf for the head completes the outfit.

The Confinement Room

By special preparation, the ordinary bedroom may be fashioned into a delivery-room. Carpets, hangings and upholstered furniture must be removed. Clean walls, clean floors, and a scrupulously clean bed must be maintained throughout the childbirth. Bathroom, and if possible, a porch should be near by. In the wealthy home, a bedroom, bathroom and the nursery adjoining is ideal; but I find that real life is always filled with anything but the ideal.

The dispensary doctor is compelled to depend upon clean newspapers to cover everything in the room he finds his patient in. The only sterile things he uses he brings with him, and should he have to spend the night, the floor is his only bed. A student who was in my service told me that there was not one article in the entire home, which consisted of but one room, that could be used for the baby. He wrapped his own coat about it and laid it carefully in a market basket and placed it on the floor at the side of the pallet on which the mother lay and by the aid of a nearby telephone secured clothes from the dispensary for the babe.

Always select the best room in the house for a home confinement. If the parlor is the one sunny room, take it; remove all draperies, carpet, etc., and make it as near surgically clean as possible. While sunshine is desirable, ample shades must be supplied, as the eyes of both mother and babe must be protected.

The Bed

A three-quarter bed is more desirable than a double bed. If it is low, four-inch blocks should be placed under each leg, the casters having been removed to prevent slipping. The bed should be so placed that it can be reached from either side by the nurse and physician. The mattress may be reinforced by the placing of a board under it if there is a tendency to sag in the middle. Over this mattress is securely pinned the strip of rubber sheeting or table oilcloth. A clean sheet covers mattress and rubber cloth and at the spot where the hips are to lie may be placed the large sterile pad to absorb the escaping fluids. The floor about the bed is protected by newspapers or oilcloth. Good lighting should always be provided. Much trouble and possible infection may be avoided by clean bedding, plenty of clean dressings, boiled water, rubber gloves, and clean hands.

About the Author

Dr. William S. Sadler M.D. was a well-known American psychiatrist and college teacher in the school of medicine at the University of Chicago. For over sixty years he practiced his profession in Chicago, thirty-three years being associated in practice with his wife, Dr Lena Kellogg Sadler. The doctors were pioneers in the research on the mysterious Urantia Papers.