CHAP. XX. _Of Preternatural BIRTHS, from the WOMB’s inclining backwards._
Experience teaches us, that the WOMB may be also too much _resupin’d_; or tending with its _Bottom backwards_, may be pressed too much towards the SPINE: So that its _Orifice_ is not only raised _too high_ in the BELLY, but is also so _obliquely seated_, that it no more answers to the _VAGINA_ in a _right Line_, varying more or less, according to the Proportion of this _Tendency_ to the BACK-BONE.
FROM this _Posture_ of the WOMB now, it necessarily follows, that the HEAD (tho’ never so well _turned_) falls upon, and is violently forced against the OSSA PUBIS; where the tender HEAD sticking, often happens by its own _Struggles_ and the _Mother_’s _PAINS_, to be grievously squeez’d and gradually crush’d, so that, until it is removed and brought into the _PELVIS_, the _Woman_ can by no means bring forth her _INFANT_. Wherefore the diligent and careful _MIDWIFE_ must (by due Attention) make it her Business to discern at the _first_ TOUCH this _ill Position_ of the WOMB, and presently upon the _first Pang_ of LABOUR, try to help both the _MOTHER_ and the _CHILD_.
WHEREAS otherwise the slothful and ignorant _MIDWIFE_, may continue the poor _Woman_ in an irregular LABOUR perhaps some Days, without perceiving the HEAD to be fixed upon _these Bones_, always erroneously imagining the _INFANT_ only to be situated _too high_, (because it lies out of the reach of her _shallow_ TOUCH) and that it must in due Time _fall down lower_ within her _Ken_. Or peradventure otherwise, when by the TOUCH, _she_ feels a kind of _Roundness_ or _Hardness_, thro’ the WOMB, mistaking _This_ for the HEAD, _she_ thinks the _INFANT_ is well turned, and wants only _strong PAINS_ to drive it forwards with Success.
THIS _Ignorance_ is chiefly owing to her own _Stupidity_, in that _she_ cannot clearly distinguish between the WOMB and the VAGINA by the TOUCH; nor the _Orifice_ of the WOMB from the _Parts_ of the _CHILD_, or _MEMBRANE_; which (in this _Case_) frequently occasions the _Death_ of many a _Dear MOTHER_ and _INFANT_.
BUT here it is to be moreover noted of this difficult _Situation_ of the WOMB, that the _MIDWIFE_ (how skilful soever) perhaps can either not _touch_ the ORIFICE at all, or but very little, except it lies _wide open_, when she may _touch_ at least some Part of the CIRCLE of the _Border_: For the HEAD being fixed upon the PUBIS above, the whole _upper Part_ of the _Edges_ of the ORIFICE can no ways peradventure be _touched_ with the _Fingers_, which may only reach the _lower Part_ that is _Open_.