The Sushruta Samhita — trans. Bhishagratna

A constant and severe pain at the waist and the back, constant (involuntary) motions of the bowels and micturition and mucous discharge from the vulva are the symptoms which are manifest at the time {i.e., a little before) of parturition. 4-5.

Preliminary Measures :— Rites of benediction should be performed for the safety of the enciente in her travail and she should be made to pronounce benedictory Mantras surrounded by male babies on all sides. A fruit with a masculine name should be given in her hand. Her body should be anointed with oil and washed with warm water and she should be made to drink largely a gruel (Yavagu) made of articles (which exert a beneficial virtue at the time). Then she should be laid on her back on a soft and sufficiently spacious bed, her head being placed on a pillow and her legs slightly flexed and drawn up. Four elderly ladies with paired finger-nails and skilled in the art of accouchement and with whom she feels no delicacy, should attend and nurse her at the time. 6.

Then after having gently lubricated the mouth of the parturient canal along the natural direction of the pubic hairs (Anuloma) (so as not to create any discomfort in the part) one of them (elderly ladies) should address the enciente as follows : — "O fortunate damsel, try to bear down the child; but do not make such an attempt in the absence of real pain." On experiencing an untying of the umbilical cord of the child, the enciente should gently make such urgings, whenever she will experience pain in the pelvic, pudendal and pubic regions and in the region between the neck of the bladder and the pelvis. Deep urgings should be

2^C THE SUSHRUtA SAMttlTA. Chap. X.]

made on the exit of the foetus out of the uterus, and after that deeper urgings should be made during the passage of the child through the canal until delivery. 7.

An urging (made by the enciente) in the absence of any real pain may lead to deafness, dumbness and deformity of the jaw-bones of the child or subject it to attacks of cough, asthma, consumption, etc., or lead to the diseases of its head, or to the birth of a haunchbacked or deformed child. A case of abnormal presentation (Pratiloma) should be converted into the normal or cephalic one (Anuloma) by version* 8-9.

A case of abnormal presentation (Pratiloma) should be converted into the normal or cephalic one (Anuloma) by version* 8-9.

In the case of protracted delivery, e, g., an obstruction of the child at the vagina, — the vagina should be fumigated with the fumes of the slough (cast-off skin) of a cobra (snake) or with the fumes of Pinditaka (Madana) or the roots of Hiranyapushpi (Kantakdri) should be tied (round the neck or the waist) or Suvarchala {Atasi) or Vis'alyd (Patald) should be tied round the hand (wrist) and leg (ankle) of the parturient woman. 10.

Post-parturient Measures :— The shreds

or membranes lying on the body of the child should be removed immediately after its birth and its mouth should be cleansed with clarified butter and rock-salt. Then a linen pad soaked in clarified butterf should be applied on the head of the new-born baby. Then the umbilical cord, after having been slightly drawn out, should be ligatured with one end of a string at a point eight fingers apart from its navel, the other end

• The various forms of (Pratiloma) abnormal presentations have been described under Mudha-Garbha Nidanam (Nidan-Sthana — Chap. IX.) and their treatment is to be found in Chikitsa-Slhana — Chap. XV.

t Ijrahmadcva recommends Vala-Taila instead of clarified butler.

Chap. X.] SARiRA STUANAM 2^1

of the string being tied round its neck ; then the umbilical cord should be severed immediately above the ligature, ii.

Natal Rites : — Then having sprayed (the face ofj the baby with cold water, the post-natal rites should be performed unto it. After that the baby should be made to lick an electuary composed of honey, clarified butter and the expressed juice of Brdhnii leaves and Anantd, mixed with (half a Rati weight of) gold dust and given with the ring-finger of the feeder. Then the body of the child should be anointed with Vald-taila and it should be bathed in an infusion of the barks of Kshiri trees, or in the washings (decoctions) of drugs known as the Sarvagandha (ElAdi group), or in water in which red-hot gold or silver bar has been immersed, or in a tepid decoction of Kapittha leaves, according to the nature of the season, the preponderance of the deranged Doshas in its body and according to its physical conditions. 12.

12.

Diet for the Child— (M.—T.) :— The milk in the breasts of a newly parturient woman sets in three or four days after parturition owing to the dilation of the orifices of the milk ducts (galactoferous ducts). Hence the baby should be fed thrice daily (morning, noon and evening) on a handful (child's own hand) of clarified butter and honey mixed with (a Rati weight ofj pulverized Anantd roots sanctified with Mantras on the first day ; and on the second and third days the child should be fed on clarified butter prepared with the Lakshand ,root). On the following (fourth; day the child should be fed on its handful of honey and clarified butter only twice (/. ^., in the morning and at noon). (From the evening of fourth day) the mother should first squeeze off a quantity of her milk and then givep. 222 the child her breast. (This rule should be observed at the time of tending the child every day). 13-14.

Treatment of the mother:— The body