A nurse's handbook of obstetrics, for use in training-schools . eveurgent symptoms, and rest, quiet, good hygienic surroundings,and nourishing food of a simple character. Brandy or otherstimulant may be given when the dyspnoea is severe, but notreatment can have any curative effect, and the disease willalways prove fatal eventually. Tetanus is a very rare disease in this country. It is dueto the action of a special germ, the bacillus tetani, which in thenewly born infant enters the system through the umbilicus. The disease begins between the third and tenth day afterdelivery, and the first sym
A nurse's handbook of obstetrics, for use in training-schools . eveurgent symptoms, and rest, quiet, good hygienic surroundings,and nourishing food of a simple character. Brandy or otherstimulant may be given when the dyspnoea is severe, but notreatment can have any curative effect, and the disease willalways prove fatal eventually. Tetanus is a very rare disease in this country. It is dueto the action of a special germ, the bacillus tetani, which in thenewly born infant enters the system through the umbilicus. The disease begins between the third and tenth day afterdelivery, and the first symptom noticed is a stiffness of themuscles of the face and an inability to nurse or swallow. Thisis followed by a contraction of the muscles that control the jaw,causing trismus or lockjaw, and within ten or twelve hoursthe spasm extends to the muscles of the neck and back, causingopisthotonos, or a rigid arching backward of the body so that TETANUS NEONATORUM. 309 it can rest on the neck and heels with the trunk and limbs abovethe level of the bed (Fig. 166).. Fig. 166.—Opisthotonos. The characteristic convulsion of tetanus. As a rule, death occurs within twenty-four hours, but if thechild can be made to live for a few days it may possibly recover. If an epidemic of tetanus is prevalent in any locality, it isbest for a prospective mother to go to some other place whichis free from the disease, for her confinement. The treatment rests wholly with the physician, and, as thepatient is unable to swallow, all drugs must be given hypoder-mically. The child must be disturbed as little as possible, forany sound or movement aggravates the condition. Tetanus antitoxin, if it can be secured, combined with stimu-lants and opiates, and chloroform by inhalation when the spasmsoccur, are the only means we have for combating the disease. XXV Infant Feeding The best food for a baby is that designed for it by nature,—breast milk. The best breast milk is that furnished by theinfants own mothe
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidnur, booksubjectobstetrics
