Mother, Nurse and Infant / A Manual Especially Adapted for the Guidance of Mothers and Monthly Nurses, Comprising Full Instruction in Regard To Pregnancy, Preparation for Child-birth, and the Care of Mother and Child, and Designed to Impart so Much Knowledge of Anatomy, Physiology, Midwifery, and the Proper Use of Medicines as Will Serve Intelligently to Direct the Wife, Mother and Nurse in All Emergencies.

by S. P. Sackett

5. I do not advocate trusting the operation to a nurse when the services of an accoucheur can possibly be obtained within the proper time.

6. The services of a physician, if obtained one or two hours after the arm is first thrust down in the vagina, may not be of any use because the time for turning is passed.

7. The operation of turning, performed by a properly instructed nurse, does not involve the least danger to the mother or child.

8. The only danger connected with this operation arises from the size of the hand of the operator, and the woman’s hand is small.

9. It is a historical fact that at one period practitioners overrated the performance of turning, and extended its use to unsuitable cases, and after the invention of the forceps, they fell into an opposite error. It is possible that we may be in error if we hold that the nurse cannot be instructed to perform the operation of turning.

10. I do not advise that the nurse should ever attempt to turn in those cases in which the membranes have been long ruptured—the shoulder and arm pressed down into the pelvis, and the uterus contracted around the body of the child. I once succeeded in a case that two experienced physicians had tried in vain for several hours to turn, and I never had very much difficulty in turning, but there have been many cases where excellent operators could not succeed in turning.

In cases of PRESENTATION OF SHOULDER, ARM OR TRUNK, delivery by the natural powers is quite exceptional, though the natural powers have occasionally succeeded in expelling the child. The safety of the mother and child depend upon the early detection of the abnormal position of the fœtus, and upon their receiving proper treatment before labor has been long in progress.

The position of the child is one intermediate between the long and transverse diameters. It may lie with its back towards the abdomen of the mother or with the back towards the spine of the mother, and the head of the child may be towards the right or the left of the mother.

The existence of a shoulder presentation is not commonly suspected until the first examination is made during labor. Suspicion will arise from finding on examination that we are not able to reach the presenting part, and that the os uteri does not dilate as usual, and that when it becomes dilated the bag of membranes protrude of a conical form, but this is common to all malpresentations. When the shoulder has descended a little it is recognized as a round, smooth prominence, rounder than the elbow, and we may be able to reach the axilla, &c. The elbow may be recognized by the sharp prominence of the bone, and the hand can be distinguished from the foot by the fingers being wider apart and more readily separated from each other than the toes, and by the thumb which can be carried across the palm. The situation of the thumb and the aspect of the palm of the hand will mark whether it is the right hand or the left.

As soon as the nurse ascertains or suspects from an external palpation or a vaginal examination, that it is a cross birth she should send for the doctor, who ought to be there as soon as the membranes are ruptured, and the nurse must not be very persistent in making examinations lest she rupture the membranes prematurely. She may perhaps give a small dose of morphine, but I would not advise that she give chloroform as it is not necessary.