Take a piece of soft linen rag, about three inches wide and four
inches long, and wrap it neatly round the navel string, in the same
manner you would around a cut finger, and then, to keep on the rag,
tie it with a few rounds of whity-brown thread. The navel-string thus
covered should, pointing upwards, be placed on the belly of the child,
and must be secured in its place by means of a flannel belly-band.

15. _If after the navel-string has been secured, bleeding should (in
the absence of the medical man) occur, how must it be restrained_?

The nurse or the attendant ought immediately to take off the rag, and
tightly, with a ligature composed of four or five whity-brown threads,
retie the navel-string; and to make assurance doubly sure, after once
tying it, she should pass the threads a second time around the
navel-string, and tie it again; and after carefully ascertaining that
it no longer bleeds, fasten it up in the rag as before. Bleeding of
the navel-string rarely occurs, yet, if it should do so--the medical
man not being at hand--the child's after-health, or even his life,
may, if the above directions be not adopted, be endangered.

16. _When does the navel-string separate from the child_?

From five days to a week after birth; in some cases not until ten days
or a fortnight, or even, in rare cases, not until three weeks.

17. _If the navel-string does not at the end of a week came away,
ought any means to be used to cause the separation_?

Certainly not, it ought always to be allowed to drop off, which, when
in a fit state, it will readily do. Meddling with the navel string