THE MIDWIFE.
GUIDE TO CHILD-BEARING WOMEN.
BOOK I.—CHAPTER I.
Sect. I. Of the Womb.
In this Chapter I am to treat of the womb, which the Latins call matrix. Its parts are two; the mouth of the womb, and the bottom of it. The mouth is an orifice at the entrance into it, which may be shut together like a purse. When a woman is not pregnant, it is a little oblong, and of substance very thick and close; but when she is pregnant it is shortened, and its thickness diminisheth proportionably to its distension: and therefore it is a mistake of anatomists, who affirm that its substance waxeth thicker a little before a woman’s labour; for any one’s reason will inform him, that the more distended it is, the thinner it must be; and the nearer a woman is to the time of her delivery, the shorter her womb must be extended.
The Author of Nature has placed the womb in the belly, that the heat might always be maintained by the warmth of the parts surrounding it: it is therefore seated in the middle of the hypogastrium (or lower part of the belly,) between the bladder and the rectum (or right gut) by which also it is defended from any hurt through the hardness of the bones: and it is placed in the lower part of the belly for the conveniency of a birth being thrust out at the full time.
It is of a figure almost round, inclining somewhat to an oblong, in part resembling a pear; for, being broad at the bottom, it gradually terminates in the point of the orifice, which is narrow.
The length, breadth, and thickness of the womb differ according to the age and the disposition of the body. For in virgins not ripe it is very small in all its dimensions; but, in women whose terms flow in great quantities, it is much larger; and if they have had children, it is larger in them than in such as have had none; but, in women of a good stature, and well shaped, it is, (as I have said before), from the entry of the privy parts to the bottom of the womb, usually about eight inches; but the length of the body of the womb alone does not exceed three; the breadth thereof is near about the same, and of the thickness of the little finger, when the womb is not pregnant; but, when the woman is pregnant, it becomes of a prodigious greatness, and the nearer she is to her delivery the more is the womb extended.
It is not without reason, then, that nature (or the God of Nature) has made the womb of a membranous substance; for thereby it does the easier conceive, is gradually dilated by the growth of the fœtus, or young one, and is afterwards contracted and closed again, to thrust forth both it and the after-burden, and it is to retire to its primitive seat. Hence also then enabled to expel any obnoxious humours which may sometimes happen to be contained within it.
Before I have done with the womb, which is the field of generation, and ought therefore to be the more particularly taken care of, I shall proceed to a more particular description of its parts, and the uses for which nature hath designed them.
The womb then is composed of various similar parts, that is, of membranes, veins, arteries, and nerves. Its membranes are two, and they compose the principal parts of the body; the outermost of which ariseth from the peritoneum, or caul, and is very thin; without smooth, and within equal, that it may the better cleave to the womb, as it is fleshier and thicker than anything else we meet with in the body when the woman is not pregnant, and is interwoven with all sorts of fibres and small strings, that it may the better suffer the extension of the child and the waters caused during pregnancy, and also that it may the easier close again after delivery.