MOST, if not all,Authorshaving hitherto imagin’d, that allPreternatural BIRTHStook their soleRiseandOriginfrom the wrongPositionsof theINFANTSonly; I come in this place, with all due Submission, not only to affirm a quite contraryOpinion, but also to lay down a directly oppositeMaxim: Namely, that the most difficult and dangerousPreternatural BIRTHSproceed merely from the illSituationof theWomb; which I take to be the most commonCauseof theChild’s wrongPosture. The Truth of which I hope to make evidently appear, to all such, who know and will consider, that thisNoble Partis no less subject to variousAccidentsand differentDiseases, than theRestof theBody; which springing from diversSources, may rationally be suppos’d to occasionPreternatural BIRTHS, andthosemore or less dangerous, according to theNatureof theEfficient: as forInstance,
INCaseof anInflammation,Exulceration,Putrefaction, or theWomb’s beingSchirrous,Callous, orHard; affected with aCarcinomaorCancer; an obduratedGland,Cicatrix, or anycarnous Excrescence; or inCaseof theWomb’s beingDryandRigid, and theOrifice’s beingHardandThick, as commonly happens toWomenin Years, especially of theirFirst CHILD; I say, from either ofthese, or any such likeCauses, aPreternatural BIRTHmay ensue, andthateven tho’ thePelvisandPassagebelarger, but much more ifthosebenarrower, and the Point of theOs SacrumbentInwards.
I.INtheLargerPelvis, the greatestDifficultyof thisBIRTHproceeds from too great aDescentof theWomb; which relaxes theLigamentsandFibresof theVagina, and so much depresses theBladder, that anIncontinencyofUrinepresently follows, which in thisCaseis commonly succeeded by aFalling Downof theWomborVagina, as already observ’d inChap.XI. where the DiligentMidwifewill find the dueMethodof preventing such growingMischiefs, and of opening theOrificeof theWombboth safely and readily, and consequentlyDeliveringherWomanmore easily and expeditiously, with good Success as well as Security.
II.INthenarrowerPelvis, theMIDWIFEneeds no ways fear the above-namedAccident, and therefore is not to be at so much Pains inretainingtheOrificein its proper Place, whatever Trouble she may have inopeningit; which would be no easyTask, was not theOs Coccygisto bethrust back, (as set forth,Chap.IX.) And which I must (for this Reason) recommend once more to all CarefulMIDWIVES, as the best and most effectualMethodof performing this happyApertion.
FROMwhat is said here therefore, we may now conclude, that a greatVarietyofCausesmay subject theWombto a Diversity ofAccidents, andthoseof sundryDegrees, which may more or less affect itsMotionandSituation, as already set forth[171].
ANDhence it is that we have so manyDegreesofPreternatural BIRTHSonPartof theWomb,Allwhich to enumerate particularly in this Place, would be aWorkasSuperfluousasTedious: wherefore, to be brief, I shall here also reduce them to theFourfollowing, (as before mentioned,Sect.IV.Chap.13.) viz.Preternatural BIRTHS, proceeding from anoblique Situationof theWombincliningForwards, orBackwards, or to (eitherSide)RightorLeft: which fourfoldSituationof theWombmay be rightly and properly compar’d to theFour Cardinal Pointsof theCompass, as the rest of itsoblique Positionsmay be analogously adequated to theCollateralandMiddle Points: For because, as they decline from theMeridian, and derive themselves fromEast,West,North, andSouth, as formerly observ’d[172]; sothoseare less difficultBIRTHS, and branch out from theFourmentioned Extremities: since theWomb, like aMagnetick Needle, may run quite round, and be ill-seated every way, or on everyside. In all whichCases, theINFANTmust absolutely beTurned; whichPerformancein anyobliqueWomb, requires a competent solidKnowledgeand soundJudgment, as well as the best adapted and experiencedHands. But ofthose, more particularly hereafter; andFirst, accordingly——