After descanting on the inutility, and even positively detrimental effects of active interference in natural labour, he warms with his subject, and, in the course of the three stages by which he limits and defines the operations of nature in introducing man into the world, enjoins, in language horribly disgusting from its technical obscenity, an amount of grossly indecent interference, only to be measured by the credulity and endurance of his miserable patient. If the maxim of non-interference which he inculcates holds good, he deceives and wrongs his patient to a most shameful extent, by permitting and encouraging the delusion that by these vaginal examinations he can render her “assistance,” or mitigate the sufferings which nature has ordained; and we assert, without fear of contradiction, that the man who should dare to practise upon the weakness of women in such a manner, and at a moment when they are least able to resist his solicitations, deserves the severest condemnation. In all this foul tissue of verbiage descriptive of the practice in natural labour there is nothing which a female attendant of the most ordinary intelligence could not accomplish with the greatest ease, and yet the nurse, who is generally a well instructed midwife, is scarcely mentioned at all, and her duties appear to be confined to a trivial and unimportant after-operation, which the conscientious and sensitive doctor deems an act of far greater indelicacy than those eight times repeated examinations per vaginam, and other contact with the patient’s person, so sedulously prescribed, and which, in truth, appear to constitute the whole “art,” so far as the treatment of natural labour is concerned. One more extract will more than suffice to show the nature of this abuse, which we fear is, from its daily increasing power and influence upon the female mind, becoming more and more difficult of cure; but which, when considered in all its hideous bearings, should arouse even the most callous and indifferent to a sense of its criminality, and cause the hearts of all who reverence modesty in woman to swell with righteous indignation at the insults which a vile custom has mercilessly heaped upon the sex:—
“She now, at length, submitted to an examination per vaginam, which I made from behind, as she stood erect by the bed. The finger failed at first to reach the os and cervix uteri, until, on pressing upwards, as far as possible, I found the uterus lying transversely, the os higher than the body, pointing to the right side, and the body of the uterus lodged in the left side of the pelvis, near the groin, where it seemed to be firmly fixed. I now made her kneel on the bed, with the head low, so as to elevate the nates, and cautiously tried through the rectum, as well as per vaginam, to raise the uterus from its position into the median line, but without success. An attempt on the following day was with no better result.... After the interval of a month, I made another examination per vaginam, also of the nipples, and found no change in either. After the interval of another month I found the nipples and areolæ precisely as at first; but, to my great satisfaction, the uterus had nearly righted itself in position, and the body of it was rounded and plainly enlarged. The lady also hinted a suspicion that she had quickened.”...
“In this instance my suspicion of pregnancy (which at first was very slight) rested on the interruption of menstruation alone. The health improved from the time of quickening, and the pregnancy went on. I may add that I have no doubt the latero-version of the womb occurred at the period of the miscarriage;... and that its righting itself, at length, was the consequence of its increasing bulk.”[30]
Such is the practice of man-midwifery! We observe that, in this revolting case, the disgrace, the shame, the infamy of the poor patient was endured in vain, and that after all the tentatives, and “manipulations,” and experiments, so perseveringly repeated by the accoucheur, without any beneficial result whatsoever, nature alone was the true physician.
We will conclude this chapter of horrors in the strong and earnest language of the late Sir Anthony Carlisle, with the conviction that his burning words will go right home to the hearts of those who may not hitherto have given a thought to this fearful violation of the rights of nature.
“The woman who sacrifices her modesty to fashion, her person to indignity, and her husband’s honour to the sneers and contempt of her male midwife, is below contempt. She is a disgrace to her sex!
“It is my firm opinion that the practice of man-midwifery compromises the character and morality of our country. It is demoralizing to society, an insult to virtuous women, and a foolscap to men. If not checked and abolished, the pretensions to female modesty, and a respect for the decorums of society, will eventually be altogether excluded from the female character.”