“It should be added that, while the pain was inhibited, there seemed to be no diminution in the strength of the uterine contractions.”
Dr. Thomas Mournighan, of Providence, R. I., has been, for more than two years, one of the staunchest advocates of my methods. He has had phenomenally successful experiences in goiter, deafness, female irregularities, and in the relief of pain and cure of conditions in the general practice of medicine.
Dr. Mournighan has also had almost uniformly successful results with zone analgesia in childbirth. I quote from a few of his cases.
“Case 1. Primipara, nineteen years of age. Suffered from furious attacks of vomiting at the beginning of her pregnancy. Her family physician wanted to abort her, fearing for her life, unless the attacks were checked.
“She finally came under my care. I instructed her to bite her tongue as hard as she could, about one-third the distance from the tip—thus, as you see, ‘attacking’ the entire zone connection. This procedure controlled the vomiting almost immediately, and instead of becoming accustomed to it, thereby losing its beneficial effect, she became, if anything, even more susceptible to its influence.
“When she came to term I placed a rough-edged box in the bed, for her to press the soles of her feet on. I also provided her with a sheet, tied to the bed post, which she gripped and pulled upon during pains. This, I feel certain, helps pain relief by zone analgesia—as well as by assisting in the mechanics of labor. She made traction upon the sheets and pressed her feet on the box as the condition seemed to require, and, as she expressed it, ‘got great comfort from it.’
“When the second stage of labor came on—that stage where I generally resort to chloroform—I made strong pressure over the feet, sinking my thumbs well in over the articulation of the toe and foot joint. She was delivered in less than five hours. The afterbirth came away without the slightest pain. I was peculiarly struck by the almost complete absence of labor exhaustion.”
“Case 2. Mother aged forty, ninth child. She had had ‘the devil’s own time’ with the last three or four, the attendant having been compelled to use forceps in these births. With her last child she had had a bad laceration of the cervix, which, however, had been skillfully repaired.
“I gave her two aluminum combs, the edges of which I had nicked with a file, so as to roughen them for the thumb to press over. There being no box handy I covered a coal shovel with a towel, and, when the pains became severe, let her press the soles of her feet against the sharp edge of this.
“Within 3 hours she was delivered—without forceps this time—of a 10 1/2 pound boy—as clean a delivery as I ever saw.