From Homoeopathic Recorder, August, 1930.
PREGNANCY being a normal condition is, of necessity, a healthful condition, other things and conditions being normal. For those who are not healthy or normal the very best time to restore them to health is while carrying a child. Medicine acts better and more promptly, not only in relieving the expectant mother of painful labour, but also in bringing into the world a healthy and vigorous child.
The wise prescriber takes a record of the family history and ailments, diseased conditions, hereditary influence, as well as the patients history from childhood, her sicknesses, childhood diseases, hopes and fears, and her symptoms in full. This should not be hurried or skipped over, but very carefully investigated and considered. More than one consultation may be necessary before the proper remedy can be selected and administered. The results will be marvellous; a grateful patient and a normal child will ever be thankful and call you blessed.
A gentleman asked why his children died so young. He said that at first they seemed hearty and strong, but later sickened and died. He confessed he had syphilis when a young man. I told him that this was likely the cause of his children being so weak and dying so young and that any coming child should have proper prenatal treatment through its mother to eliminate this hereditary condition.
Before long he reported his wife pregnant and asked me to take charge of her. At first she received a few doses of Lueticum in high potency, with other remedies as symptoms called for them during the entire pregnancy. The result was most happy and efficient. The child came as a healthy, strong, vigorous baby, remained well during babyhood and childhood, not subject to ailments, and grew to womanhood strong and healthy.
One such case is sufficient and shows it can be done. Homoeopathy is the only agency competent to do such efficient work. There is no entailment of drug disease to be added to the sick condition. Such treatment is not only good for the coming child, but it is also good for the mother and it makes labour normal and easy.
Treatment during pregnancy makes an easy labour. The parturient woman usually gets up well and is soon back to normal. After pains, abnormal lochia, flooding and other conditions which cause suffering and make the woman dread the approach of labour, seldom come to the woman who has had proper homoeopathic treatment with the truly indicated remedy in accordance with the totality of symptoms, which include the family history, previous personal history, causes and modalities.
In such a case forceps are seldom required unless there is osseous deformity or contraction of the pelvis or some unusual condition of the child. In a large experience I only had to use forceps twice, and neither case had treatment during pregnancy.
At a state society meeting one prominent physician stated that in spite of all care sixty per cent of women would be lacerated or torn. This is not true with those who practise in accordance with the teachings of The Organon of Samuel Hahnemann. The only case of laceration I ever had was in a small, very nervous woman who refused an examination till toward the end of labour. That laceration required no attention because it was small.
I have had but one case of puerperal spasms. The woman had no previous treatment. Belladonna was the remedy indicated and controlled the spasms nicely. At her next pregnancy she received proper treatment and had a very easy accouchment. Toxaemia is a fearful condition and most alarming to all present. It tries the mettle of the attending physician.
There is no doubt whatever but that Pulsatilla will change the position of the unborn child in utero and make it normal,provided the membrane has not broken and there is no deformity in mother or child. This has been verified a number of times by competent prescribers and is reliable. Of course, if the head has engaged, this cannot be expected,yet might be possible if the head is not too far advanced and firmly fixed in the pelvic bones.
The administration of the proper homoeopathic remedy six weeks or two months before the expected confinement will make labour easy and shorten the time very materially. I have never known it to fail. If the woman has symptoms they must be the basis of the prescription as in any other case. Of course the remedy cannot change a deformed bony structure in the woman or child.
Most difficult labours arise from the soft parts and when these parts are put into proper condition by the proper homoeopathic remedy they relax and expand so that the child can be expelled without trouble. Common sense tells us that an abnormally large child will retard labour and make it more tedious. Many of the accouchments are made abnormal by meddlesome attending physicians through ignorance, haste or the administration of ergot or other drugs to hurry the delivery.
When everything seems to be normal nothing should be done but wait and let nature take its proper course. How much better to wait a few hours than to cause much suffering of the woman and perhaps the death of the child. It is a crime to thus cause suffering and injury. The physician is paid a goodly sum these days and the should earn his money.
When there are no symptoms upon which to base a prescription I have found, in many cases, that Actea racemosa will cause an easy labour and delivery in a very short time. I have never known it to fail except in one case. The case lived two or three hundred miles away, and, of course, called in a local doctor.
He was dressed for an evening party and desired to get a way as soon as possible. He administered, as the brother of the woman told me afterward, large doses of ergot to hasten labour, thus causing much suffering and resulting in third degree laceration through the rectum. Such treatment is criminal.
Haemorrhage can usually be easily and quickly controlled by the indicated remedy. When there are no symptoms to guide I have found that Ipeca. will promptly control the haemorrhage in labour and Sabina in abortion. A number of times I have seen strong bearing down pains and haemorrhage checked in threatened abortion and the woman go to full term.
In several cases attempts were made to cause abortion by the woman or her husband, and when it became alarming they sent for me. I told them I had never been a party to an abortion and that my first duty was to prevent it. They were willing for anything to be done to relieve them of their great alarm and the woman of her suffering. A dose or so of Sabina stopped the procedure very soon and all went well.
I have seen a number of cases of postpartum haemorrhages promptly relieved by the indicated remedy. Without guiding symptoms Ipecac. is usually the remedy; when the flow is hot and burning Belladonna.
I have never had a case of placenta praevia and hence know nothing of it by personal experience. If there are marked symptoms I would give the indicated remedy and deliver as soon as possible. I should be governed by circumstances and act and do as seemed best at the time. I used to dread having such a case and feared every case might be the one. But I have always been thankful to have had none.
In some cases symptoms are complex and it is very difficult, and sometimes impossible, to select one remedy to cover the totality and relieve the case of suffering. In these cases the administration of two or three remedies will do no harm,it will not spoil the case. Each remedy will accomplish its mission satisfactorily to the physician and patient. When on the frontier I was called to a labour case about eight miles from my home.
We did not have automobiles in those days. The woman was fairly large and somewhat nervous, ignorant and full. At first she complained of her back, crying out, “Oh, my back, my back.” I could get no other symptoms at the time and no progress was made. One dose of kali carb. relieved the suffering and she quieted down, but still there was no progress. After awhile I noticed her shrinking back at every pain. On questioning she replied that with every pain there was a great teasing to urinate, annoying and quite painful.
One dose of Nux vom. very soon relieved this and the abnormal condition was removed, but still there was no progress. On close watching and questioning I finally discovered a sense of a lump in the throat that annoyed her much. I thought of Lobelia, but could not verify the choice and was too far from home to return to the office.
While Lobelia is not a great remedy for labour and seemed far fetched, one dose put her right to business, brought on strong pains of the right character, relieved her of all suffering of mind and body, and in just twenty minutes by the watch the child was born. All three symptoms were not present at the same time, but followed each other, or she did not realise they were all present, but saw only the most distress
The uterus is not an absorbing organ, but a discharging one. Nature tries to free itself of the poisonous elements by a vaginal discharge, the lochia, and in most cases is successful, if not hindered by the ignorant and meddle-some attendant. When medicated douches and packs are used, the discharge is pushed back into the uterus or dammed up, so that sepsis can get in its fearful results.
YINGLING, lived and practiced in Emporia, KS from 1896 until his death. He was educated for medical missionary work, but after receiving his appointment to go to Bombay, India he became ill and could not carry out that mission. He filled the pulpit at Findlay, OH for seven years, and then moved to Dodge City where he engaged in the cattle business. He named the Ness county town of Nonchalanta in 1886. He reluctantly returned to the practice of medicine to relieve the suffering in the area north of Dodge City. His practice became extensive, extending to the neighboring states. He was quite religious and missed Methodist church services just once in 32 years.