MANAGEMENT OF LYING-IN WOMEN. 581 



convulsions, she would be in the situation of the traveller who, hav- 

 ing reached his post harassed and fatigued, can still take a few steps 

 while heated, but when he once becomes still and cooled, is quite 

 unable to walk. All this, however, is to be understood of cases in 

 which every thing has passed naturally; for if the womb should not 

 contract well, or should there have been any flooding or threatening 

 of convulsions, or any other accidents that commonly ensue from 

 a state of extreme weakness, the removal should be deferred for a 

 few minutes in order to allay the danger or give time for the func- 

 tions to return to their natural condition, while the woman is still 

 upon the bed whereon she had been delivered. 



1238. Those who get up, and go without any support to get into 

 the other bed, run the risk of bringing on inversion, anteversion or 

 retroversion, prolapsion of the uterus and many other dangerous 

 complaints. They ought to be warned of it, and made to understand 

 that they should allow themselves to be carried; when they are 

 very weak, or any accident has supervened, which might be aggra- 

 vated or recalled by too much motion, the two beds ought even to be 

 placed side by side, for in this way the woman can be slid on the 

 clean bed without moving her much, by making use of the sheet on 

 which she laid during the labor, and which may be easily removed 

 afterwards. 



When put to bed, it would be useless, and indeed not always free 

 from danger, to compel her to preserve an attitude that she is unac- 

 customed to, to make her bed represent an inclined plane for exam- 

 ple, (descending towards the foot), for the purpose of favoring the 

 escape of the lochia, or on the other hand, to keep her hips raised 

 higher than her head, with a view of moderating the fluxion of fluids 

 towards the genital organs; she will lie upon the back, with the legs 

 stretched out and close together, should that position appear more 

 convenient and not fatguing to her; but she ought not to be prevented 

 from turning on the side, and bending her limbs if she wishes to do 

 so. In all respects she should be allowed to consult her own ease, 

 and her own inclinations should be attended to. The fatigue and 

 weakness brought on by the constraint of a fixed posture, would of 

 themselves be suflicient to bring on some accidents, and constitute a 

 morbid slate, even in a healthy person subjected to them; and they 

 should, a fortiori, be dispensed with in women whose functions, 

 being temporarily disturbed, require so much care and caution for 

 their restoration to a natural state. 



1239, All that has been said, in speaking of the management of 

 a woman in labor, relatively to the air which surrounds her, the 

 chamber, and her moral condition, is equally applicable to her dur- 



