promote
the secretion of milk and the shrinking of the uterus.

1. Head raising, body straight and stiffened.
2. Arm raising, well extended.
3. Leg stretching, with knees stretched and toe extended.
4. Massage, administered by the nurse.

A splendid tonic circulatory bath may be administered at the close of
the second week (in normal puerperium), known as the "cold mitten
friction," which is administered as follows: The patient is wrapped in
a warm blanket, hot water bottle at feet, and each part of the
body--first one arm then the other; the chest, the legs, one at a
time--is briskly rubbed with a coarse mit dipped in ice water. As one
part is dried it is warmly covered, while the next part is taken, and
so on until the entire body has been treated. The body is now all
aglow, the blood tingling through the veins, and the patient refreshed
by this wide-a-wake bath. Properly given, the cold-mitten friction
bath is one of the most enjoyable treatments known and under ordinary
conditions, if intelligently administered, may be given as early as
the eighth day.

AFTER PAINS

After the birth of the first baby the uterus usually is in a state of
constant contraction, hence there are no "after pains;" but after the
birth of the second or third child, the uterine muscle has lost some
of the tone of earlier days--there is a tendency toward relaxation--so
that when the uterine muscle does make renewed efforts at contraction,
these "after pains" are produced. They usually disappear by the third
day. Nothing should be done for them, indeed they should be welcomed,
for their presence means good involution (contraction) of the uterus.

THE TEMPERATURE

Careful notations of the temperature should be made during the first
week. A temperature chart should be accurately kept and if the
temperature should rise above 100 deg. the physician should be notified at
once. The third day temperature is watched with expectancy, for if an
accidental infection occurred at the time of labor, it is usually
announced by a chill and sudden rise of temperature on the third day.
This may be as good a place as any to mention the commonly met night
sweating. This is due to a marked accentuation of the function of the
skin. It is not at all unusual for a sleeping mother in the early
puerperium to wake up in a sweat with night gown very nearly drenched.
The gown should be changed underneath the bedding, while alcohol is
rubbed over the moi