Indian Medicine (Medicin), translated by C. G. Kashikar c11.6

c11.6

The pregnant woman must generally live very cautiously. She should avoid over-exertions, sexual intercourse, fasts and too strong a purgative, sleep by day and keeping awake by night, grief, ascending a carriage, anxiety, sitting ( on the floor ), untimely blood-lettings, suppression of natural excretions and the like. In a diseased condition her foetus has also to suffer in the same organs in which she has to suffer (Su 3.3.16 f.). From the first day of her pregnancy upto the confinement the woman should always be in fair disposition and clean in body, should adorn herself with ornaments and white clothes, perform expiating and fortune-bringing ceremonies, worship gods, Brahmans and respectable persons, touch nothing dirty or deformed, avoid what smells bad or looks bad, should not hear exciting speeches, should not eat dry, stale, stinking or moist food, should not go out, should not go into an empty (abandoned) house or temple, a burial place, or under a tree, guard herself from anger, terror and carnal lust, should not carry heavy load, should not speak excessively loudly and should avoid ( generally ) all what could injure the foetus. She should also not anoint or smear herself often or should not be physically tired and should observe the same rules as in menstruation (Cf. § 39). Her seat or bed should be soft, not too high, provided with a back and not too narrow. Her diet should be stimulating, fluid, predominantly sweet and prepared in an appetite-stimulating manner (Su 3.10.3). Similar list of injuries of the foetus (garbho paghātakara) is found in Car 4.4.18 and 4.8.16; AS 2.3.206. If the woman is quarrelsome, her child will be suffering from epilepsy; if she is a drunkard it will be thirsty or weak in memory or unsteady; if she eats buffalo-flesh with zest it will be warlike, red-eyed and hairy; if she likes to eat sweet things it will suffer from diabetes, will be dumb and shapelessly thick; if she likes to eat pungent things it will be weak, poor in sperm or childless and the like ( Car l.c.; AS 2.3.206 f.; Su 3.3.19–28 ). The desires of the pregnant woman ( see above ) can also have favourable effect on the foetus. Thus the child will be wealthy and genteel if the woman has a desire to see a king; virtuous and holy if she has a desire for solitude (Su l.c.). Diseases of the pregnant woman should be treated only with mild, sweet, cooling and agreeable remedies. Vomiting substances, purgatives, blood-letting and such severe remedies are to be avoided; because the pregnant woman is like a vessel full of oil which is not to be allowed to waver (Car 4.8.23). For each month of pregnancy a particular diet is prescribed, the main part of which consists of milk along with ghee, butter-milk and cream. In the eighth or ninth month the woman must take an oily enemeta in order to throw out old excrements from the body and to bring about a favourable birth-wind (peristalsis). Then a piece of cotton soaked in oil should be inserted in the vagina in order to make the vaginal passage smooth ( Car 4.8. 25; Su 3.10.4; AS 2.3.208; AHr 2.1.59-68). The birth takes place in the 9th, 10th, 11th or the 12th month (Sn 3.3.30), to speak accurately in the period commencing with the first day of the ninth lunar month to the end of the year (Car 4.4.25; AS 2.2.203; AHr 2.1.66).