| |
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 shows 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 anaemia, 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 foetus 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 ofthe 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 orgnic 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 fibre 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 upto 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 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 haemorrhaging. 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 atleast 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
litre 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 have 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.
[index]
|
