The Female Physician / Containing all the diseases incident to that sex, in virgins, wives, and widows; together with their causes and symptoms, their degrees of danger, and respective methods of prevention and cure: to which is added, the whole art of new improv'd midwifery; comprehending the necessary qualifications of a midwife, and particular directions for laying women, in all cases of difficult and preternatural births; together with the diet and regimen of both the mother and child.

by John Maubray

THUS the WOMB, exerting its extensive and expulsive Faculties, excludes the Legitimate INFANT: To which great Work also, the Painful Labours, and Labouring Pangs of the MOTHER (in the manner they happen with the contracted Spirits, depress’d Midriff, and compress’d Muscles of the Abdomen) contribute not a little Help. And, in short, this stupendous Work or Action is called BIRTH; and is nothing else, but an Exclusion of the mature CHILD.

WHICH BIRTH proceeds either from Causes of the INFANT, or from Causes of the WOMB: Of the INFANT, because through the strict Confinement of a narrow Place, and Defect[^[160]] of Aliment, and Refrigeration, It kicks and spurns for its Exit: Of the WOMB, because about that Time, being overloaded and aggrieved by the Bulk and Weight of the Child, it endeavours, by its own expulsive Faculty, to disburthen itself, and propel or drive it forth to the utmost of its Power. For——

AS it is the proper Function of the Stomach, to eject the noxious Humours by Vomit, and deject the Natural Excrements into the INTESTINES; as it is also the Office of the RECTUM to evacuate the Fæces; as likewise the Profusion of the Urine is the Action of the Bladder; as again the Extrusion of all fuliginous Matters is the Work of the Heart and Lungs; and as, at last, the Effusion of the Genital Seed (in Venery) is the Operation of the Virile Testicles: So the Exclusion of the Mature FOETUS is the Eighth[^[161]] and last proper Action of the WOMB; which is justly deem’d the only Primary Agent and Active Cause of BIRTH, as the excluded FOETUS is the Passive.

BUT this BIRTH is not always Uniform; for as it differs in Time, so it does also in Manner: From hence we have with respect to the Time, Legitimate and Illegitimate BIRTHS, which being already discuss’d[^[162]], I shall resume nothing by way of Repetition in this Place: And with respect to the Manner, we have also two general Sorts, namely, Natural and Preternatural BIRTHS; which together with their particular Branches, I am now to enter upon, without any farther Digression.

CHAP. II.
Of Natural BIRTHS.

BY a Natural BIRTH, I mean nothing else, but that which is perform’d without any ART or Artificial Means; which BIRTH (of itself) strictly observes the Order and Appointment of Nature: That is, in the INFANT’s coming Head foremost, Face downwards, Arms following, extended (along the Sides) strait upwards, towards the Thighs.

HIPPOCRATES’s Reason[^[163]], in short, for the CHILD’s thus turning and presenting itself, is very good; viz. Because of all the Parts, the Head is the Heaviest about the Time of BIRTH, as appears more at large from Sect. I. Chap. 10.

BUT besides this Argument, I believe Wise Nature has also order’d it thus; because This indubitably is the most safe and easy Manner of EXITION both for the Mother and Infant: Insomuch that by all other Methods of EXTRACTION, One or the Other, and sometimes Both Lives are, or may be, endanger’d, if not very dextrously perform’d, according to the best Laws of Art and Judgment, as by and by will more manifestly appear.