In the Lancet, 1884, vol. i., p. 922, W. Arnold Thompson, F.R.C.S.I., reports a case of resuscitation of a child delivered by the forceps, which was “apparently to myself [he says] and the nurse and relatives, a perfectly dead child, and with no signs of respiration or life about it.... My opinion was that the death was real and positive, but that, there being no actual disease present, and the blood still warm, the machinery of life was set going, and resuscitation followed as a consequence of suitable means being taken and persevered in without undue delay. In the future I do not intend to allow any still-born children to be put away without making strenuous efforts to restore vitality.”
The Lancet, 1880, vol. ii., p. 582:—In a discussion at the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society upon Artificial Respiration in New-born Children, Dr. Roper related three cases in which the child was left for dead. “One of these occurred in the practice of Mr. Brown, of St. Mary Axe. The child was still-born in the absence of a medical man. It was taken to the surgery, and thence to the late Mr. Solly, who next day, in dissecting the body, found that the heart was still beating. A second instance was of a fœtus of five months and a half, which was set aside as dead, Dr. Roper attending the mother, who was suffering from hæmorrhage. He was astonished next day to find that this immature child, which had lain on the floor for eleven hours through a cold night, was breathing and its heart beating....” Such examples show that the new-born have greater tenacity of life than is supposed.
The Lancet, 1881, vol. ii., p. 430, under the heading of “The Burial of Still-born Infants,” states that “Greater security for the due observance of these necessary regulations (the Births and Deaths Registration Act of 1874), for the burial of infants said to be still-born, is urgently called for. It is constantly patent that the burial of deceased infants as still-born, if checked, is by no means prevented; and that the authorities of burial grounds, by their laxity in carrying out the provisions of the Act, afford dangerous facilities for the concealment of crime, or negligence, and for a practice which threatens to impair the value of our birth and death registration statistics; for, if a live-born infant be buried as still-born, neither its birth nor its death is registered.”
A case of forceps-delivery occurred in the hands of the writer (E.P.V.), in which the child, when extracted, was quite purple in colour, and absolutely dead to all appearances—there was no breathing nor impulse to be found anywhere. After some efforts at resuscitation in the way of artificial respiration—not very thoroughly done, nor much prolonged (for the child was believed to be dead)—with a warm bath and frictions, it was laid aside and covered up. At a subsequent visit some hours later, the child was found in the nurse’s lap, completely recovered, and changed in colour to a bright pink. The nurse said she did not like to give the little fellow up, and by breathing into his mouth for some time he showed returning life, and by keeping it up he soon began to breathe himself.
Cases like this are believed to be not infrequent, because physicians and nurses are not, as a general rule, aware of the great tenacity of life possessed by the new-born infant.
“Still-births are not registered in England; but, under the new Registration Act, no still-born child can be buried without a certificate from a registered practitioner in attendance, or a declaration from a midwife, to the effect that the child was still-born. The proportion of still-births in this country is supposed to be about four per cent., but this is uncertain.”—A. Newsholme, Vital Statistics, 1889, p. 61.
“The proportion of deaths from premature births, compared with the total number of births, in 1861-65 was 11·19 to 1,000 births; since which time it has steadily increased, reaching the ratio of 15·89 per births in 1,000 in 1887.”—Ibid., p. 216.
The same author, p. 17, states that “a certain proportion of the births remain unregistered(a). There is strong reason for thinking that a certain number of children born alive are buried as still-born.”