On the second day bread well toasted through may be added to any of the liquids.  On the third day stewed or baked apples should be added to the diet.  On the fourth day, and from this on, the patient will have regular meals, but the diet must be a plain one.  For breakfast, stale bread, a soft-boiled egg, fruit, and a cup of tea, not too strong.  For dinner, which should always be given in the middle of the day, an oyster-stew or clam broth, a lamb chop, or a very small piece of beefsteak or chicken; but with these there must be no gravies or dressings; a potato baked in the skin; raw tomatoes, if in season; apple sauce or cranberry; celery; junket, plain corn-starch, lemon jelly, plain cup-custard.  From this list the diet must be arranged so as to give as much variety as possible from day to day.  Midway between breakfast and dinner, and again in the middle of the afternoon, the patient should have a glass of milk.  The diet should be generous, but simple.

Urination.—­ The feeble condition of the bladder in the first few hours after delivery frequently leads to the retention of urine.  Owing to the copious secretion of urine which is so common at this time, painful and injurious distention of the bladder may result.  The patient should therefore endeavor to pass her urine in at least six hours after labor, whether she feels any inclination to do so or not; the sound of running water or warm fomentations over the bladder, warm water in the douche-pan, and moderate pressure applied by the hand over the suprapubic region, are often effective in accomplishing the desired result.  If all these means fail, the catheter must be used as the last resort.  During the entire lying-in the bladder should be emptied every six hours.

Evacuation of the Bowels.—­ There should be an evacuation of the bowels in from twenty-four to thirty-six hours after the labor.  For this purpose a seidlitz powder may be given, or the liquid citrate of magnesia.  If this does not suffice, an enema of warm water, to which a little soap or two teaspoonfuls of glycerin have been added, may be given.  Two pints of water should be prepared; the patient will retain as much as she comfortably can, and as long as she can.  The bowels should be opened daily after the first day.

After-pains are caused by the same physiologic process that causes labor pains—­ namely, by the contractions of the uterus.  After the first confinement the after-pains are, as a rule, not severe; attention to the regular emptying of the bladder and bowels also lessens the severity of the after-pains; these pains seldom last after the second day.

The Lochia.—­ The discharges of the mother continue for about two weeks, and are called lochia.  For the first twenty-four hours they are pure blood; the second and the third day they are of the character of bloody water; from the fourth to the sixth day they have a, greenish-yellow color, and from the tenth to the twelfth day they become pure white.  Soiled napkins and dressings should never be allowed to remain in the patient’s room.