Ignatia – Nervousness; cannot get rid of thoughts.
Nux vomica – Sleeplessness chiefly in the morning, with flatulence and constipation.
Veratrum Album – If the sleeplessness be caused by cramps.
ACCESSORY TREATMENT – When the sleeplessness occurs in the early part of the night the patient should sponge her face and neck with hot water, or, if this fail, she should apply a cold-water compress, without macintosh covering, to the nape of the neck, just before going to bed. Similar measures may be adopted if the sleeplessness manifests itself in the early morning.
39 – MORNING SICKNESS
In the early months of pregnancy, most women experience more or less of this : occasionally nausea or vomiting, or both, are very troublesome and persistent symptoms, and give rise to serious concern as to the patient’s health, especially in the pregnancy of delicate women.
SYMPTOMS – The first intimation of it generally occurs on rising from bed. Before getting up the patient may feel as well as usual, but while dressing will be overtaken by nausea, followed by retching, and perhaps by vomiting. Or it may not occur until some little time after leaving the apartment, or not until after breakfast, which may be eaten with zest. In some cases sickness is not felt till the evening, when its habitual return indicates one of the forms of displacement (prolapse or retroversion) of the womb incident to pregnancy. Morning Sickness may begin almost immediately after conception, of which it is often one of the earliest symptoms; but more frequently it does not commence until after the lapse of two or three weeks, and then continues more or less constantly and severely for three or four weeks, and in some instances till near the time of quickening, or even until confinement. In some rare instances it does not occur before the last weeks of pregnancy, and is then apt to be severe; in other cases it is altogether absent during the whole period of gestation.
CAUSE – The increased action of the nerve force employed in digestion to furnish material for enlarged growth, carried to so high a degree as to disturb the equilibrium of the digestive and assimilative forces. It is most common amongst the wealthy and inactive. Moderate Morning Sickness is no doubt salutary diminishing that tendency to plethora or too great fulness in the system which often attends pregnancy. Uterine displacements are known to produce Morning Sickness, and it is more than possible that the slight prolapsus of the womb which is incident to the first months of gestation may help to account for it (Ludlam). When sickness is invariably brought on, or intensified during the latter part of the day or in the evening after the patient has been upon her feet, it is due to displacement or prolapse; this is proved by the prompt relief that follows the replacement of the organ on the patient’s taking the horizontal posture. Obstinate and long-continued nausea or vomiting is generally caused by congestion, ulceration, or displacement, or it may arise from hyperaesthesia of the nervous system, and require professional treatment. Nausea and sickness occurring towards night are more serious and obstinate for the reasons already mentioned.
MEDICINAL TREATMENT – Ant. C., Arsenicum, Cocc., Conn., Cup-S., Ipecac., Kal-B., Kreosotum, Lycopodium, Nux V., Petrol., Pulsatilla, Tabac., VerbascumA.
LEADING INDICATIONS FOR THE PRINCIPAL REMEDIES
Arsenicum – Vomiting after eating or drinking; persistent vomiting, with extreme weakness and emaciation.
Ipecacuanha – Great uneasiness about the stomach; vomiting of undigested food, bile or phlegm; relaxed bowels. Often sufficient in mild, uncomplicated cases.
Kreosotum – Persistent Morning Sickness from sympathetic disturbance. This remedy rarely fails.1
1. Morning Sickness – Kreosotum – Some time since the Author was consulted by a lady at a distance, by a letter. Mrs. W., aged 20, was in the third month of her first pregnancy, and after the first month began to suffer from morning sickness, which (Aug.18th) became severe, and occurred at any hour and often all day long. The sickness was worse in the morning, but very often it went on till dinner time (7 P.M.), and everything she took was returned. The sickness was supplemented by diarrhoea, which at the time of consultation had become chronic. The least exertion brought on sickness or diarrhoea and often both.
Aug.19th – We prescribed Kreosotum and sent her a small phial of the 8x tincture, directing two drops to be taken every four hours.
Aug 22nd – The lady wrote as follows:- The effect of the medicine has been wonderfully good. I have not been sick since commencing it, and the bowels have only been moved naturally. In many other way also I am much better.
Nux Vomica – Vomiting with vertigo, restlessness, and irritability of temper; waterbrash, hiccough, sense of weight at the pit of the stomach, constipation, etc. Suitable for women of dark complexion.
Petroleum – Incessant nausea; and eructations.
Pulsatilla – Fair persons; tendency to diarrhoea.
Symphoricarpus. 200 – (A good all round remedy.) Deathly nausea; vomiting continues, violent retching; smell or thought of food, intolerable. It has done its best work in the 200th potency, every two hours.
Tabacum – Continued sick feeling all day, without vomiting.
veratrum – Excessive sensibility of the nerves of the stomach, vomiting being excited by the least quantity of water by moving, or by sitting up; vomiting with great debility and tendency to diarrhoea; attacks of fainting.
ACCESSORY MEANS – The simpler modes of treatment are- cheerfulness, mental composure, moderate out-of-door exercise, and early hours. The regulation of the diet is also important, – a change in the hours of eating to those in which the stomach is least likely to be disordered, especially avoiding over- repletion. Cold food will sometimes be retained when hot is rejected. In some cases two or three teaspoonfuls of beef-tea, frequently repeated, or soda-water and milk, or when these cannot be borne, small pieces of ice may be sucked. In extreme cases it may be necessary to give up the attempt of feeding by the mouth, and to depend upon injections by the rectum for a day or two.
Sept 4th – The remedy was continued at longer intervals, and the good effects were lasting.
We were subsequently informed that the symptoms did not return, and that the lady made a good recovery from her confinement.
Raw Beef in the Vomiting of Pregnancy – Dr. L.S. Bailey and Dr. J. Kitchen, of America, have recently, recorded several cases in which raw been has been retained after every other kind of food had been rejected. It was chopped fine, with a little cayenne pepper and salt sprinkled over it, and given in teaspoonful doses at intervals of three hours. Although the idea of eating raw beef was repulsive, upon tasting it, it was not found disagreeable. Scraped beef is even more easily digested. It may be prepared as follows: Take a piece of steak cut like a little block, scrape the surface with a silver spoon until all the pulp is extracted, then cut a slice off the steak, and scrape the newly cut surface again. It may be taken with red current jelly, or spread as a sandwich between bread, with a sprinkling of salt and pepper.
40. – HEARTBURN, WATERBRASH, AND ACIDITY.
These complaints often occur during gestation, and may be generally traced to taking more food than the stomach can digest, frequently from the mistaken idea that the patient now require more food than at any other time.
SYMPTOMS – A burning sensation up the throat, and sometimes spasm of the stomach, generally with frequent eructations of an acrid or tasteless watery fluid, when it is termed Waterbrash or Pyrosis.
MEDICAL TREATMENT – Arsenicum, Bryonia, Calcarea carb., Carb.-V., Iris., Kal.- C., Lycopodium, Nux V., Pulsatilla, Phosphorus, Rob., Sanguinaria, Sulphur, Sulph-Ac.
INDICATIONS FOR THE PRINCIPAL REMEDIES –
Calcarea Carb. – Obstinate acid eructations.
Carbo Veg. – Acid, acrid eructations, with flatulence. Tumbling in the abdomen, burning heat in the stomach, the hot air sometimes rising to the throat, causing a sensation of suffocation.
Nux Vomica – This remedy is generally efficient, and should be administered three of four times daily as long as improvement continues. It is especially indicated when there exist headache, spasm in the throat, constipation, and loss of appetite.
Pulsation – Patients of a mild, timid disposition, with a tendency to diarrhoea; dislike of food, especially of fat; eructations tasting of food; perverted taste, or taste as of putrid meat; inclination to vomit.
Sulphuric Acid. – Chronic acidity. Our allopathic brethren have now found out that acidity is better treated by acids than by alkalies.
ACCESSORY MEANS – The diet should be restricted; avoiding a too exclusive use of vegetables; all pastry, fatty kinds of food, stews, twice-cooked meats, buttered toast, new bread, raw or half-cooked vegetables, and everything that is rich and indigestible, must be forbidden. Bread prepared by Dauglish’s process termed aerated bread, is best for patients troubled with Heartburn. Plain biscuits are also useful. Drink should be taken sparingly with the meals.
LICENTIATE OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS; MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS; LICENTIATE IN MIDWIFERY, LONDON AND EDINBURGH, ETC. PHYSICIAN TO THE READING AND BERKSHIRE HOMOEOPATHIC DISPENSARY.
Author of "The Stepping Stone to Homeopathy and Health,"
"Manual of Homoeopathic Treatment". Editor of "The Homoeopathic World."