IN fine, having thus accounted for all the Preternatural BIRTHS whatsoever, which may or can occur on the Part of the INFANT, and that conformable to the most nice and polite Rules of Art; It remains now in the next place, that I acquit myself in a consonant manner, with respect to Those proceeding from the Part of the Womb. Of which First in general——
CHAP. XVIII.
Of Preternatural BIRTHS, proceeding from Causes of the WOMB.
MOST, if not all, Authors having hitherto imagin’d, that all Preternatural BIRTHS took their sole Rise and Origin from the wrong Positions of the INFANTS only; I come in this place, with all due Submission, not only to affirm a quite contrary Opinion, but also to lay down a directly opposite Maxim: Namely, that the most difficult and dangerous Preternatural BIRTHS proceed merely from the ill Situation of the Womb; which I take to be the most common Cause of the Child’s wrong Posture. The Truth of which I hope to make evidently appear, to all such, who know and will consider, that this Noble Part is no less subject to various Accidents and different Diseases, than the Rest of the Body; which springing from divers Sources, may rationally be suppos’d to occasion Preternatural BIRTHS, and those more or less dangerous, according to the Nature of the Efficient: as for Instance,
IN Case of an Inflammation, Exulceration, Putrefaction, or the Womb’s being Schirrous, Callous, or Hard; affected with a Carcinoma or Cancer; an obdurated Gland, Cicatrix, or any carnous Excrescence; or in Case of the Womb’s being Dry and Rigid, and the Orifice’s being Hard and Thick, as commonly happens to Women in Years, especially of their First CHILD; I say, from either of these, or any such like Causes, a Preternatural BIRTH may ensue, and that even tho’ the Pelvis and Passage be larger, but much more if those be narrower, and the Point of the Os Sacrum bent Inwards.
I. IN the Larger Pelvis, the greatest Difficulty of this BIRTH proceeds from too great a Descent of the Womb; which relaxes the Ligaments and Fibres of the Vagina, and so much depresses the Bladder, that an Incontinency of Urine presently follows, which in this Case is commonly succeeded by a Falling Down of the Womb or Vagina, as already observ’d in Chap. XI. where the Diligent Midwife will find the due Method of preventing such growing Mischiefs, and of opening the Orifice of the Womb both safely and readily, and consequently Delivering her Woman more easily and expeditiously, with good Success as well as Security.
II. IN the narrower Pelvis, the MIDWIFE needs no ways fear the above-named Accident, and therefore is not to be at so much Pains in retaining the Orifice in its proper Place, whatever Trouble she may have in opening it; which would be no easy Task, was not the Os Coccygis to be thrust back, (as set forth, Chap. IX.) And which I must (for this Reason) recommend once more to all Careful MIDWIVES, as the best and most effectual Method of performing this happy Apertion.
FROM what is said here therefore, we may now conclude, that a great Variety of Causes may subject the Womb to a Diversity of Accidents, and those of sundry Degrees, which may more or less affect its Motion and Situation, as already set forth[[171]].
AND hence it is that we have so many Degrees of Preternatural BIRTHS on Part of the Womb, All which to enumerate particularly in this Place, would be a Work as Superfluous as Tedious: wherefore, to be brief, I shall here also reduce them to the Four following, (as before mentioned, Sect. IV. Chap. 13.) viz. Preternatural BIRTHS, proceeding from an oblique Situation of the Womb inclining Forwards, or Backwards, or to (either Side) Right or Left: which fourfold Situation of the Womb may be rightly and properly compar’d to the Four Cardinal Points of the Compass, as the rest of its oblique Positions may be analogously adequated to the Collateral and Middle Points: For because, as they decline from the Meridian, and derive themselves from East, West, North, and South, as formerly observ’d[[172]]; so those are less difficult BIRTHS, and branch out from the Four mentioned Extremities: since the Womb, like a Magnetick Needle, may run quite round, and be ill-seated every way, or on every side. In all which Cases, the INFANT must absolutely be Turned; which Performance in any oblique Womb, requires a competent solid Knowledge and sound Judgment, as well as the best adapted and experienced Hands. But of those, more particularly hereafter; and First, accordingly——