e child, certain
irregular, heavy, cramp-like pains occur in the abdomen and back. For
a half-dozen pains they may show some signs of regularity; but they
usually die down only to start up again at irregular intervals. These
are known as "false pains."

When the pains begin to take on regularity and gradually grow heavier
and it is near the appointed time for the labor, the patient should
prepare to start for the hospital; or, if it is to be a home delivery,
the physician should be called. As noted above, the first subjective
symptom may be the rupture of the bag of waters, and it is imperative
to prepare at once for the labor. It is far better to spend the day at
the hospital, or even two days waiting, rather than to run the risk of
giving birth to the child in a taxicab or street car; or, in the event
of a home labor, to have the child born before the doctor arrives.

WHAT TO DO IN THE ABSENCE OF A DOCTOR

It is often the case that when we need our physician the most, he is
busy with another patient and cannot come, or perhaps an automobile
accident detains the man of the hour. The hospital delivery always
possesses this advantage over the home--physicians are always on hand.
We deem it wise to relate in detail the method of procedure during the
rapid birth of a child; that the husband or nurse may give intelligent
and clean service.

After the patient has been given the enema and has been shaved and the
bath has been administered as previously directed, the helper most
vigorously "scrubs up." There are three distinct phases to the
"scrubbing up": First, the three-minute scrubbing of the hands and
forearms with a clean brush and green soap; to be followed by, second,
the trimming and cleaning of the finger nails, for it is here, under
the nails, that the micro-organism lives and thrives that causes
child-bed fever or septicemia; and, third, the final five-minute
scrubbing of the fingers, hands, and forearms. An ordinary towel is
not used to dry the well-cleansed hands, but they are now dipped in
alcohol and allowed to dry in the air.

And now if the pains are returning every three to five minutes or if
the bag of waters has broken, the patient should go to bed. She will
lie down on her back with the knees drawn up and spread apart. The
patient, having had the cleansing bath, is now washed with the
disinfectant bath (2 antiseptic tablets to 11/2 pints of water), from
the breasts to the knees. Another member of