[2] In the United States, nearly 20% of pregnant women have some degree of restricted activity prescribed[3] despite the growing data showing it to be dangerous, causing some experts to call its use "unethical".

[2] Women who are pregnant and are experiencing early labor, vaginal bleeding, and cervix complications have been prescribed bed rest.

[6] Evidence is unclear if it affects the risk of preterm birth and due to potential side effects the practice is not routinely recommended.

[14] Prolonged bed rest has long been known to have deleterious physiological effects, such as muscle atrophy and other forms of deconditioning such as arterial constriction.

[18] Besides lack of physical exercise it was shown that another important factor is that the hydrostatic pressure (caused by gravity) acts anomalously, resulting in altered distribution of body fluids.

[21] Complete bed rest refers to discouraging the person in treatment from sitting up for any reason, including daily activities like drinking water.

In one case after another Hilton scored success, after all sorts of fantastic treatments had failed, because he recognised the value of rest in inflammation - particularly in osteomylitis and bone and joint tuberculosis which was then so prevalent.

Indeed, many of our older hospitals - especially those for the chronic sick, with large inadequately heated wards and too few nurses - enforce bed rest as the only modus operandi.

Not only were patients isolated in bed for an extended time, they were advised to avoid other activities that might mentally exhaust them - such as writing or drawing.

Before the advent of effective antihypertension medications, bed rest was a standard treatment for markedly high blood pressure.

In 1892, feminist writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman published "The Yellow Wallpaper", a horror short-story based on her experience when placed under the rest cure by Dr. Silas W. Mitchell himself.

The narrator was advised by her husband to perform the rest cure and avoid creative activities while struggling with fits of depression.

Gilman sent her short story to Dr. Mitchell, hoping that he might change his treatment of women with mental health and help save people from her own experience.