BUT as all _Women_ are not _alike_, so this _RULE_ will admit of sundry _Exceptions_; for _strong-body’d_ Women, Women of their _First Child_, and those somewhat in Years, their WOMBS continue generally shut up to the last, and open not without the severest _Pains_: And not only so, but the _Orifice_ of the WOMB differs also, in all difficult and _Preternatural Cases_, as well by reason of its own _oblique Situation_, as of the _INFANT_’s ill Posture. For this Reason it is, that an Experienced and Judicious _Hand_ is most requisite upon such Occasions; since such an _One_ can clearly distinguish, what _Another_ cannot so much as guess at.
THIRDLY, The _MIDWIFE_ immediately knows by the _TOUCH_, whether the Woman be taken with the real and genuine LABOUR-PAINS or _Not_. Which is a Point of the _greatest Moment_; since as it is of bad Consequence to _delay_ the BIRTH, when the Woman is so taken, especially if the _WOMB_ and _INFANT_ be _Both_ well situated, lest the _Pains_ should vanish, and the Opportunity of DELIVERY should thereby be lost: so, on the other hand, to force a Woman to LABOUR, unseasonably, when but seiz’d with _Bastard-Pains_, is a most pernicious Thing.
BUT both these _Cases_ too often happen, even to the _Hazard_, if not the _Loss_ also of both LIVES; especially the _Latter_, when the _MIDWIFE_ does not know how to distinguish these _False Pains_, either the _Cholick_, or other _Gripes_, from the _genuine Pains_ by the _TOUCH_: As will be more fully and amply explain’d in the next following _Chapter_.
GIVE me Leave to say then, that BIRTH is not to be provok’d by any Means, until the _MIDWIFE_, by touching the _Orifice_ of the WOMB, is certain, that the Woman labours under the _True Pains_; which is not to be judiciously suppos’d to happen before the _Seventh Month_ at soonest.
_BIRTH_ at that Time approaching, the Woman is afflicted with great PAINS in her _Groin_, _Loins_, and about the _Navel_, tending downwards with a depressing Force upon the WOMB and other _Private Parts_. But these PAINS are not continual, for they only go-off and come-on by _turns_; at which Time, by their violent _Depressure_, the _MIDWIFE_ finds the _Orifice_ of the WOMB _open_, or at least _opening_, and upon Renewal of the PAIN, she finds it more and more dilated and relaxed: whereas, on the other hand, when the PAINS are _Spurious_, they disperse themselves through the whole _Body_, as well as the _Abdomen_; and then the WOMB (as if it were securing itself) is found more closely _contracted_.
