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

BUT because I have generally observ’d most Authors to treat promiscuously of BIRTHS, not only accounting some, which are really Natural, to be Preternatural; but also both handling and writing of them as such, only because attended with some difficult Circumstances: I shall (in this place) take Leave to make an agreeable Distinction betwixt the different Sorts of Natural BIRTHS, in order to make every thing the more clear and obvious to the Conception of the Reader. Upon which Account therefore, I shall reduce These to two Heads, and that under the Titles of Natural Easy, and Natural Difficult BIRTHS.

THE FIRST of which I include in this Chapter; but because in this Case (which I call a Natural Easy BIRTH), Nature alone always performs the Work, without any Help of ART or Artful Means; and because also the Midwife (upon this Occasion) has but little or nothing to do, save only to observe the concluding Chapters of the last preceding Section; and upon receiving the Child, immediately to manage and provide both for the Mother and the Infant according to their several Necessities, as hereafter shall be inculcated in the respective Chapters of the next following Section: I say, for these Reasons, I have no Room here to insist farther on this present Head; wherefore I proceed in course to the SECOND Sort of these BIRTHS. Namely——

CHAP. III.
Of Natural Difficult BIRTHS.

THO’ indeed every difficult Expulsion of the INFANT, from whatsoever Cause it may proceed, is verily a Difficult BIRTH; yet I shall here distinguish a difficult One from a preternatural BIRTH; not only that I may thereby, the better avoid the Confusion which others have led themselves into, by treating of Both promiscuously, but also that my Method may tend the more to the peculiar Benefit and Advantage of the Ingenious Reader.

WHEREFORE I call that a Difficult BIRTH; where, notwithstanding the Figure and Dimensions of the CHILD, answer in all respects to its proper natural Posture, in a Perpendicular Womb, duly situated, yet the Exclusion of the INFANT, is retarded, by some certain Opposition or Difficulty. From hence proceeds the real Difference between This and the Natural Easy BIRTH, forasmuch as This always requires less or more skilful Assistance, according to various Circumstances, and That but Little or none at all.

NOW the Causes of Difficult BIRTHS are very various, and according to the Nature of them, This sometimes proves equally as dangerous as the Preternatural; but when so it happens, I have commonly observed the Fault to be, for the most Part wholly owing to the arrogant MIDWIFE, who either knew not how to remove the Cause and facilitate the BIRTH herself, or delay’d applying betimes to some Abler Person, for the Relief and Safety of her Labouring WOMAN.

HENCE arises a Fundamental Maxim, which I would lay down for a memorable Rule to all such Ignorants; that no MIDWIFE ought to keep a Woman in this Condition under her Hands (especially in a Place where extraordinary Help is to be had) any longer, than she finds the Advances of BIRTH answer to the Proportion of Time spent about it: But forthwith she ought to deliver her up to the Care of the more Skilful and Judicious Practiser in this Art. In which Case, of Compliance and Condescension, she is to be highly commended for her tender Care, and cautious Concern; whereas upon acting contrary to this good Rule out of Pride or Obstinacy, and the fatal Accident ensuing, I have known the MIDWIFE to have been try’d for her Life in the City of Venice.

BUT that I may render every thing Plain and Easy to the Apprehension of the weakest Reader, by reason that the Causes of Difficult BIRTHS are both different and numerous, I shall again reduce them to Two Classes; namely, External and Internal: The External, I shall include in the next following Chapter; but the Internal Causes, requiring a more Curious and Extensive Dilucidation, may (I hope) be pertinently divided into a Three-fold Difference; viz. Causes of the Mother, of the Infant, and of the Passages; which I propose to handle particularly, all in their due Order. But First,