FIRST, Whether a Woman be with CHILD or not: For I must needs own, that some of the most certain Signs of Pregnancy are discover’d by the TOUCH; since the Womb shuts itself close up, immediately after Conception, and its Orifice becomes more pointed, hard, and solid, resembling (according to Mauriceau’s just Comparison) the Mouth of a Puppy newly pupp’d.
BUT in time of the INFANT’s ripening, this Orifice begins to swell, and becomes softer, smoother, and thinner than it was Before.
SECONDLY, The MIDWIFE discovers by the TOUCH, whether the Time of Birth is near at hand, and how near it is. However, in speaking to this Point, I desire to be rightly understood, not meaning Miscarriages, or Illegitimate BIRTHS, but only such as are intirely Legitimate.
AS then the INFANT advances in Maturation, so the Orifice of the Womb from the Third Month, grows smoother, thinner, and softer; and consequently the more smooth, thin, and soft it appears at any time afterwards to the TOUCH, so much the nearer draws on the Time of Birth.
IN some Women, this ORIFICE begins to open two or three Months before Birth; and this Aperture enlarging itself by degrees, becomes soon as wide as a Shilling-Piece, when the Motion of the INFANT may be distinctly perceiv’d: And in others it is so much more enlarged, that one single Pain or two accomplishes the Birth.
BUT as all Women are not alike, so this RULE will admit of sundry Exceptions; for strong-body’d Women, Women of their First Child, and those somewhat in Years, their Wombs continue generally shut up to the last, and open not without the severest Pains: And not only so, but the Orifice of the Womb differs also, in all difficult and Preternatural Cases, as well by reason of its own oblique Situation, as of the INFANT’s ill Posture. For this Reason it is, that an Experienced and Judicious Hand is most requisite upon such Occasions; since such an One can clearly distinguish, what Another cannot so much as guess at.
THIRDLY, The MIDWIFE immediately knows by the TOUCH, whether the Woman be taken with the real and genuine Labour-Pains or Not. Which is a Point of the greatest Moment; since as it is of bad Consequence to delay the Birth, when the Woman is so taken, especially if the WOMB and INFANT be Both well situated, lest the Pains should vanish, and the Opportunity of Delivery should thereby be lost: so, on the other hand, to force a Woman to Labour, unseasonably, when but seiz’d with Bastard-Pains, is a most pernicious Thing.
BUT both these Cases too often happen, even to the Hazard, if not the Loss also of both Lives; especially the Latter, when the MIDWIFE does not know how to distinguish these False Pains, either the Cholick, or other Gripes, from the genuine Pains by the TOUCH: As will be more fully and amply explain’d in the next following Chapter.
GIVE me Leave to say then, that Birth is not to be provok’d by any Means, until the MIDWIFE, by touching the Orifice of the Womb, is certain, that the Woman labours under the True Pains; which is not to be judiciously suppos’d to happen before the Seventh Month at soonest.
BIRTH at that Time approaching, the Woman is afflicted with great Pains in her Groin, Loins, and about the Navel, tending downwards with a depressing Force upon the Womb and other Private Parts. But these Pains are not continual, for they only go-off and come-on by turns; at which Time, by their violent Depressure, the MIDWIFE finds the Orifice of the Womb open, or at least opening, and upon Renewal of the Pain, she finds it more and more dilated and relaxed: whereas, on the other hand, when the Pains are Spurious, they disperse themselves through the whole Body, as well as the Abdomen; and then the Womb (as if it were securing itself) is found more closely contracted.