Childbirth the Natural Way
Childbirth, in the normal way, should be a purely
natural function with very little pain or discomfort to the women concerned. It
is so even today that with primitive races. But many civilised women appear to
find the bearing of children a task fraught with grave risk and suffering and
attended by numerous minor or serious after-effects. This is solely due to
wrong dietary habits and a faulty style of living. Really healthy mothers will
always have an easy time when pregnant.
Pregnancy makes many demands on the prospective
mother, the most important being her nutritional needs and those of the unborn
child. Studies of nutrition of women during pregnancy show a definite
relationship between the diet of the mother and the condition of the baby at birth.
These studies have also shown that some of the complications of the pregnancy
such as anemia, toxemia and premature delivery may result from a diet
inadequate in the nutritional needs of the mother and the baby.
The process of childbirth becomes painful mainly due
to a large fetus in the womb. This results from an excessive intake of
denatured foods such as white flour products, white sugar, refined cereals,
meat and other flesh foods during pregnancy. Other factors contributing to the
suffering of the women include lack of exercise, unhygienic habits of living
and restrictive garments. It is quite wrong to assume that the larger the baby
at birth, the healthier it will be. The weight of the baby should be about
three to three and a half kg. at birth. If the weight is more than that, delivery
will be painful for the mother. Such a child will also be covered with
unnecessary fat and watery tissue, which is really waste matter and an
impediment to health.
A proper diet during pregnancy is the most important
factor for not only having a painless childbirth but also for giving birth to a
healthy baby. The idea of "eating for two", which is so prevalent
today, is absurd and it leads to overeating, resulting in an unusually, heavy
baby. The diet during pregnancy should consist of natural, vital foods and
minimum intake of today’s denatured food products. The unborn child will
require an adequate amount of organic minerals from its mother for building of
bones and tissues and this can be supplied by natural food such as fruits, raw
vegetables, whole meal bread, and milk, unnatural foods like white bread,
sugar, meat, pudding and pies are very deficient in organic mineral matter and
their intake during pregnancy leads to loss and decay of teeth, general
debility and other ailments after childbirth.
Pregnancy is rendered more difficult in case of
habitual constipation. In the advanced stage, this is aggravated by the
pressure of the enlarged uterus on the bowels. This can be avoided by eating
plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables of high fiber content. The expectant
mother should drink eight to ten glasses of water. She should not delay going
to the lavatory when there is the urge. In severe constipation, a lukewarm
water enema may be taken once every week.
The diet for expectant mothers should be planned
along the following lines by securing a safe and easy child birth and a healthy
child:
Breakfast: Fresh
fruit in season or grated raw carrot, or any other raw salad and milk. Prunes or
other dried fruit may also be taken, if desired.
Lunch: Steamed
vegetables, as obtainable, whole wheat chappatis and a glass of buttermilk.
Dinner: A
good-sized raw salad of any suitable vegetables, sprouted mung beans, whole
wheat bread, butter or cottage cheese and prunes or other dried fruit as
dessert.
Besides proper diet, the expectant mother should be
given daily a dry friction and cold sponge during the first five or six months
of pregnancy. A dry friction bath can be taken with a rough dry towel or with a
moderately soft bristle brush. If a brush is used, the procedure should be as follows:
take the brush in one hand and begin with the face, neck and chest. Then brush
one arm, beginning at the wrist and brushing towards the shoulders. Now stoop
down and brush one foot, then the ankle and leg. Then do the other foot and leg
and next the hips and certain portion of the body. Continue brushing each part
until the skin is pink. Use the brush quickly backward and forward on every
part of the body. If a towel is used, it should be fairly rough, and the same process
should be followed. This bath excites to increased activity all the functional
processes lying at or near the surface of the body.
The cold sponge is taken as follows: wring out a
towel in cold water, and rub the whole body in the manner described for the
friction bath. If, during the process of rubbing the towel becomes too dry, it
should be wrung out again. The expectant mother should also take breathing and
other mild exercises. After the sixth month, tepid water may be used for the
sponge. Exercises should either be modified or suspended altogether. A good
walk should be taken daily right up to the end of the eighth month and all
household duties should be performed in a normal way. This will keep the
muscles of the womb and pelvis in good condition and will ensure safe and easy
childbirth. The exercise should, however, always be well within the capacity of
the prospective mother and all undue strain, worry or excitement should be
avoided.
Recoupment
For the really healthy woman, recoupment after
childbirth poses no problem. Women among primitive races are able to rise and
go about their duties immediately after delivery. The woman of civilised
nations are however, seldom able to do so. In fact it is customary to keep them
in bed for a considerable time after child birth. It is usually due to abnormal
slowness with which the generative organs assume the former position. As in the
case of pregnancy, diet plays an important role in the recoupment after
childbirth. The diet of the mother for the first two days after confinement
should consist of only fresh juicy fruits with some warm milk. A salad with
thin whole meal bread and butter may be added to the diet the next day. The
diet may thereafter be extended gradually until it approaches the pre-natal diet
outlined above. The diet should exclude
white bread or white flour products, sugar, jam, pastries, puddings, pies, heavy,
greasy and fried foods. Strong tea, coffee, alcohol, condiments, pickles, and
vinegar should be strictly avoided.
It is most essential that the baby nurses at the
mother’s breast to stimulate production of milk, especially during the critical
period following birth. This is important for a number of reasons. The infant,
nursing at the breast, causes the uterus to contract. The contraction of uterus
will help expel any portion of the placenta which may still remain following
delivery. It will also stop the mother from hemorrhaging. If those mothers who
are afraid of losing their figures would try nursing their babies, they would
discover their figures actually improve after child birth.
Feeding of children
During the first forty eight hours immediately after
birth, the mother’s breasts generally do not produce milk. This is in
accordance with nature’s plan that the infant should fast during this period.
He will have no need for food and none should be given. All children after this
period should be breast-fed where possible. Breast feeding is the natural and
ideal way of feeding the infant. Mother’s milk is pure, fresh and easily
digestible. It helps the child to grow. The child should be given four feeds a
day at four-hourly intervals but no feeds should be given during the night. If
the child wakes up at night only water should be given. Babies should be
breast-fed for at least 8 months as this is nature’s way of providing all the
required nutrients during this period.
Recent research has shown that the mother’s body is
able to react to infections in the child and the bacteria in the baby’s mouth
leads to the production of appropriate anti-bodies in the mother’s milk.
Breast-fed babies are, therefore, less prone to gastrointestinal and
respiratory diseases. If for any reason, it is impossible to breast feed the
child, it should be fed on goat’s milk or cow’s milk, diluted with water, with
milk sugar added. The child should not be given artificially prepared, patent
or tinned milk foods. When a mother can partly feed a child, she should give it
two feeds of her own and two bottle feeds or one of her own and three bottle feeds.
Those mothers who suffer from diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes,
heart trouble, should not breast feed their babies. Where children are entirely
breast-fed, they need nothing more than the milk they receive from their
mothers. Children on bottle feed, should be given some orange juice daily, in
addition to the bottle feeds. No baby, whether breast-fed or bottle-fed should
be given anything except milk and orange juice for the first 10 to 12 months of
existence. No starchy food or anything else should be given during this period.
If they are given starchy foods such as bread, or oatmeal before weaning, it
will lead to the early development of such child ailments as cough, colds, measles,
whooping cough and so on as babies lack the proper enzymes needed for their digestion
before that age.
At the age of one year, a baby should be given about
a liter of milk with fruit juices daily. Never force a baby to take food if it
does not want to, and never overfeed. If a baby shows no inclination for food
or a certain day, it should be given as much as it wishes for and no more. The assumption
that the baby should have a certain amount of food every day havs no basis. On
the other hand, if the baby does not appear to be satisfied with the quantity
of its food and wants more at a feed, it should be given as much as it wants.
Source: www.healthlibrary.com through www.scribd.com
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