frequently this
function is resumed again three or four months after childbirth. The
question here arises whether the mother should continue to nurse her
child while menstruating.

If the child remains healthy, keeps steadily gaining in weight, and
seems to be well nourished, and if the mother is not losing ground in
any way, then there is no reason why the mother should not keep on
nursing her child. If, however, the mother's health fails, or if there
is evidence that the child is not prospering, then weaning should take
place.

As a rule, a menstruating mother does not have good milk for her child;
it is usually thin and watery; although, as I have said, under certain
conditions nursing may continue.

=Sudden Suppression.=--Sudden suppression of menstruation is most
generally due to a cold, mental shock, or undue exposure of some kind.
It is always accompanied with pain in the back, headache, more or less
fever, and other unpleasant symptoms. It should generally be considered
as a dangerous condition, and every effort should be made to restore the
menstrual function. Sometimes when menstruation is suddenly suppressed
in this way, a so-called "vicarious" menstruation occurs, and there is
hemorrhage from the lungs, the nose, the gums, the bowels, or from some
other source.

=Treatment of Suppression.=--The treatment of sudden suppression consists
of a hot foot-bath, or sitting in a tub of hot water. At the same time
the person should drink a bowl of hot ginger tea, or hot lemonade, be
covered well with blankets, and every effort be made to bring about a
profuse sweating. Then have the person go to bed, and apply hot cloths
across the lower part of the bowels. Place at the feet bottles of hot
water, or hot bricks, and keep up the perspiration in this way for an
hour or two. This is all that need be done in the great majority of
cases.

=Only One Medicine to be Taken.=--As the shock to the system tends to
disturb the menstrual function for some time to come, the person should
begin at once with Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound, and should
continue it through the coming month, in order to insure that the next
menstruation may be normal in every way.

=Scanty Menstruation.=--Often menstruation appears with perfect regularity
and yet is greatly deficient in amount. As we have stated elsewhere,
there is no rule about this, and yet when the menstrual function is
scanty, it is almost invariably a symptom of anaemia