Check the mother’s body
3. Count the number of beats in a minute:
• If you have a watch with a second hand,
count the number of beats in the
mother’s pulse for 1 minute. Write
the number down.
(At first, have someone watch the clock
for you and tell you when a minute has
passed. Many people find it hard to count
accurately while looking at a watch. They
tend to count one pulse beat every
second, no matter how fast the pulse is
really beating.)
• If you do not have a watch with a second
hand, check the pulse anyway. You can
learn to tell if it is slow, normal, or fast
compared to your own pulse, and to
other women’s. Or you can make a
homemade timer to use instead of
a watch (see page 443).
What to do if the woman has a fast pulse
If the mother’s pulse is 100 beats or more a minute, she
may have one or more of the following problems:
• stress, fear, worry, or depression
(see pages 104 and 274)
• anemia (see page 116)
• infection like malaria (see page 98),
bladder infection (see page 128), or
womb infection (see page 179)
• heavy bleeding (see page 112)
• harmful drugs in her blood (for example,
from using cocaine or methamphetamines
or taking diet pills — see page 46)
• thyroid trouble
• heart trouble
If you suspect any of these causes, turn to the page number listed for more
information. If you do not know what is causing the fast pulse, get medical advice.
Note: Some healers check other traits of the pulse. For example, in
many parts of Asia, healers feel how strong and how easy to feel the
pulse is. In this book, we only teach how to check how fast the pulse is
beating. If you usually check the pulse for other traits, try checking
how fast it beats too.
A Book for Midwives (2010)
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