There are two skins that compass the child in the womb; the one is the amnios, and this is the inner skin; the other is the allantois, and this is the skin that holds the urine of the child during the time that it abides in the womb. Both these skins, by the violent stirring of the child near the time of its birth, are broken; and then the urine and sweat of the child contained in them fall down to the neck of the womb; and this is that which the midwives call the waters, and is an infallible sign that the birth is very near; for the child is no more able to subsist in the womb after those skins are broken, than a naked man is in the cold air. These waters, if the child come presently after them, facilitate the labour, by making the passage slippery; and therefore the midwife must have a care that she force not the waters away, for nature knows better the true time of the birth than she, and usually retains the waters till that time.
GENUINE RECIPES FOR CAUSING SPEEDY DELIVERY.
A loadstone held in the travailing woman’s hand. Take wild tansy, bruise and apply it to the woman’s nostrils. Take also date stones, and beat them to powder, and let her take a drachm of them in white wine at a time.
Take parsley, bruise it, and press out the juice, and put it up (being so dipped) into the mouth of the womb, and it will presently cause the child to come away, though it be dead, and the after-burden also; besides it cleanseth the womb, and also the child in the womb, of all gross humours.
Let no midwife ever force away a child, unless she is sure it is dead. I once was where a woman was in labour, which being very hard, her midwife sent for another midwife to assist her, which midwife sending the first down stairs, and designing to have the honour of delivering the woman herself, forced away the body of the child, and left the head behind; of which the woman was forced afterwards to be delivered by a man-midwife.
After the child is born, great care is to be taken by the midwife in cutting the navel-string, which, though by some is accounted but a trifle, yet it requires none of the least skill of a midwife, to do it with that prudence and judgment that are requisite. And that it may be done so, you must consider, as soon as the child is free from its mother, whether it is weak or strong; if the child be weak, put back gently part of the vital and natural blood in the body of the child by its navel (for both the vital and natural spirits are communicated by the mother to the child by its navel-string); for that doth much recruit a weak child; but if the child be strong, you may forbear.
As to the manner of cutting the child’s navel-string, let the ligature or binding be very strong; and be sure not to cut it off very near the binding, lest the binding unloose. You need not fear to bind the navel-string very hard, because it is void of sense; and that part of the navel-string which you leave on falls off of its own accord in a few days; the whole course of nature being now changed in the child, it having another way ordained to nourish it. It is no matter with what instrument you cut it off, so it be sharp and you do it cleverly. The piece of the navel-string that falls off, be sure you keep it from touching the ground; remember what I have before told you concerning this matter, and if you keep it by you it may be of use. The navel-string being cut off, put a little cotton or lint to the place, to keep it warm, lest the cold enter the body of the child, which it will be apt to do if it be not bound up hard enough.
The next thing to be done, is to bring away the after-birth, or secundine, else it will be very dangerous for the woman. But this must be done by gentle means, and without delay, for in this case especially delays are dangerous; and also in what I have set down before, as good to cause speedy delivery, and bring away the after-birth. And after the birth and after-birth are brought away, if the woman’s body be very weak, keep her not too warm; for extremity of heat doth weaken nature and dissolve the strength; but whether she be weak or strong, let no cold air come near her at first; for cold is an enemy to the spermatic parts. If cold goes into the womb, it increases the after-pains, causes swelling in the womb, and does great hurt to the nerves.
If what I have written be carefully observed by midwives, and such nurses as keep women in their lying-in, by God’s blessing, the child-bed woman may do very well, and both midwife and nurse gain credit and reputation. For though these directions may in some things thwart the common practice, yet they are grounded upon experience, and will infallibly answer the end.
But there are several accidents that lying-in women are subject unto which must be provided against; and these I will speak of next.