To this purpose, therefore, place the woman
so that her buttocks may be a little higher than her head and shoulders, causing her to lean a little to the opposite side to the child's ill posture; then let the operator slide up his hand, well anointed with oil, by the side of the child's head; to bring it right gently, with his fingers between the head and the womb; but if the head be so engaged that it cannot be done that way, he must then put up his hand to the shoulders, that by so thrusting them back a little into the womb, sometimes on the one side, and sometimes on the other, he may, little by little, give a natural position. I confess it would be better if the operator could put back the child by its shoulders with both hands, but the head takes up so much room, that he will find much ado to put up one, with which he must perform this operation, and, with the help of the finger-ends of the other hand put forward the child's birth as in natural labour.
Some children present their face first, having their hands turned back, in which posture it is extremely difficult for a child to be born; and if it continues so long, the face will be swelled and become black and blue, so that it will at first appear monstrous, which is occasioned as well by the compression of it in that place, as by the midwife's fingers in handling it, in order to place it in a better posture. But this blackness
will wear away in three or four days' time, by anointing it often with oil of sweet almonds. To deliver the birth, the same operation must be used as in the former, when the child comes first with the side of the head; only let the midwife or operator work very gently to avoid as much as possible the bruising the face.
SECT. V.—How to Deliver a Woman when the Child presents one or both Hands together with the Head.
Sometimes the infant will present some other part together with its head; which if it does, it is usually with one or both of its hands; and this hinders the birth, because the hands take up part of that passage which is little enough for the head alone; besides that, when this happens, they generally cause the head to lean on one side; and therefore this position may be well styled unnatural. When the child presents thus, the first thing to be done after it is perceived, must be, to prevent it from coming down more, or engaging further in the passage; and therefore, the operator having placed the woman on the bed, with her head lower than her buttocks, must guide and put back the infant's hand with his own as much as may be, or both of them, if they both come
down, to give way to the child's head; and this being done, if the head be on one side, it must be brought into its natural posture in the middle of the passage, that it may come in a straight line, and then proceed as directed in the foregoing section.
SECT. VI.—How a Woman ought to be delivered, when the Hands and Feet of the Infant come together.
There are none but will readily grant, that when the hands and feet of an infant present together, the labour must be unnatural, because it is impossible a child should be born in that manner. In this case, therefore, when the midwife guides her hand towards the orifice of the womb she will perceive only many fingers close together, and if it be not sufficiently dilated, it will be a good while before the hands and feet will be exactly distinguished; for they are sometimes so shut and pressed together, that they seem to be all of one and the same shape, but where the womb is open enough to introduce the hand into it, she will easily know which are the hands and which are the feet; and having taken particular notice thereof, let her slide up her hand and presently direct it towards the infant's breast, which she will find very
near, and then let her gently thrust back the body towards the bottom of the womb, leaving the feet in the same place where she found them. And then, having placed the woman in a convenient posture, that is to say, her buttocks a little raised above her breast (and which situation ought also to be observed when the child is to be put back into the womb), let the midwife afterwards take hold of the child by the feet, and draw it forth, as is directed in the second section.