The Province of Midwives in the Practice of their Art / Instructing them in the timely knowledge of such difficulties as require the assistance of Men, for the preservation of Mother and Child; very necessary for the perusal of all the sex interested in the subject, and interspersed with some New and Useful Observations.

by William Clark

They who intend to practice Midwifry in PARIS, are oblig’d to attend anatomical Lectures and Dissections, that their Judgments may be inform’d, by the Knowledge of the Structure of the Body, for an Undertaking so hazardous in ignorant Hands.

London, at present, affords equal Advantages of Information; for the anatomical Wax-work, with suitable Lectures, might furnish as good a Qualification, with less Offence than real Dissections; and there are not wanting those who professedly instruct both Sexes by mechanical Demonstrations.

And for the future, it is to be hoped, there will be no Necessity for Men to have Recourse to PARIS for Observation, since we have Infirmaries at Home for the Accommodation of Women in Child-bed; and tho’ they are expos’d naked to the Eye in the Hotel de Dieu, it must be confess’d, that the fundamental Rules of the Art are not built on what the Eye of the Observer can possibly discover in the most expert Operators; but depend on Circumstances conceal’d from Sight, within the Body of the Patient.

But whatever Advantages LONDON and WESTMINSTER afford for the Instruction of Midwives, the Country is entirely destitute of them; and the best Books on the Subject, adorn’d with elegant Figures, can give but a very imperfect Notion of the Parts they represent, to any who have not attended Dissections, or seen more natural Resemblances than Cuts.

The Figures in Books, exhibit the Bones of the Pelvis, a Variety of Situations of the Infant, and Uterus, the Placenta and umbilical Vessels and Membranes, &c. whereas it would be no less serviceable to those, who assist Women in Travel, to be acquainted with the Viscera, liable to suffer by a difficult Labour; for the Liver, Spleen, Sweetbread and Kidneys, if not the principal Contents of the Chest, may be so injured by the ill Position of the Child, Compression of the Parts, and rash Assistance, as to prove fatal, more or lets immediately; occasioning Inflammations, Suppurations, Mortifications, Schirrhu’s, Cancers, or Consumptions.

The best Writers of Midwifry, such as Mauriceau, Deventer, De la Motte, Heister and others, explain the Causes of difficult Births, and the proper Methods of Assistance; but instead of improving most Country Midwives, fill them with Conceits of what, it is impossible, they should understand, and thereby occasion the Loss of great Numbers of Women and Children.

In order therefore that Midwives may acquit themselves with Reputation, and that Child-bearing Women may be the better Judges for themselves, or the charitable Part of the Sex, who are past these Dangers, the better able to assist their Friends and Neighbours, I shall endeavour to shew how far they may act with Safety under the Disadvantage of Country Practice, and describe those Symptoms, which for the most Part accompany hard Labours, very probably beyond their Abilities; when they will justly incur the Censure of Inhumanity and Rashness to depend upon their own Skill.

CHAPTER II.

I

N this Chapter I have avoided the Use of Terms of Art, or explain’d them, in Regard to those for whom I chiefly write, as far as my Regard to Decency admits; but if any Word should occur not easily understood by any of my Readers, almost any English Dictionary will explain its Meaning; and it cannot be expected that any Book can instruct those who cannot read, tho’ I am sorry to say too many such assume the Office of Midwives.