1. The operation, performed for the child’s sake, is but seldom required; and in general,
(2.) only after the commencement of the seventh month of pregnancy.
3. It must be clearly indicated; and
(4.) must be delayed as long as is consistent with the child’s safety.
5. Its means must be those which are most efficient, and safest for the child.
We have already stated that the induction of abortion before the seventh month, undertaken for the child’s sake, must be generally useless; and therefore, as attended with some degree of danger to the mother, generally unjustifiable. As the profession are nearly united on this point, its further discussion is here unnecessary.
We have asserted that the cases where prematurely induced labor is required for the child, are comparatively rare. We now add that while in some respects they are more frequent, in others they are less so than is generally supposed. To necessitate it, there must be disease or deformity on the part of the mother, or disease on the part of the fœtus or its appendages.
It is most frequently performed to avoid the alternative of craniotomy, the necessity of which, unless extreme, can manifestly only be known with certainty, before the expiration of pregnancy, from the experience of past labors. But here too much caution cannot be exercised; the rules of the books and of accepted authorities are not to be blindly followed.
Craniotomy at the full time is still too frequently performed:
Where it has been suggested by the character of a previous labor, children are often, or might be, born living;