UPON which Occasion, that the _MIDWIFE_ may the better discharge her _Duty_, and assist the _Labouring Woman_ more effectually, without Fear or Danger, and without committing any Blunder or Mistake; as I have already taught her in what _Place_ the WOMB is seated, to what _Parts_ it tends, and how it is _annexed_, &c; so I shall now proceed to describe its _Qualities_ and _Faculties_, so far as is necessary, and absolutely requisite in the _Practice_ of _MIDWIFERY_. And, FIRST, then——
CHAP. X. _Of the Extensive Faculty of the WOMB._
NATURE has endued the WOMB with this _Faculty_, to the end that it may (in _Pregnancy_) extend and dilate itself Day by Day, in _Proportion_ to the _Growth_ of the INFANT, _Secundine_, and _Humours_.
NOW the WOMB in its _lower Part_ being straitly tied to the _Intestinum Rectum_ and _Bladder_; it is to be understood that the _Distention_ happens mostly in its superiour Part or _Bottom_: Which is not only most _Free_ and at greatest _Liberty_, but also _Thickest_ and aptest for _Dilatation_.
THIS will appear more evident, when we consider how the INFANT adheres to that Part, the _Bottom_, by means of the _Secundine_: How the INFANT also as it grows, begins to separate the _Humours_ in the _Secundine_, which (of consequence) encrease as the _Infant_ does: And how again the Encrease of the _Humours_ fill up the _Chinks_ and VACUUMS, as I may call them, which the INFANT cannot possess. From hence it is that the WOMB extends itself in the _Form_ of a PEAR, only a little _Plainer_ at Both Ends.
THUS the _Secundine_ adhering[155] to the _Bottom_ of the WOMB, by its _thicker Part_ (call’d the PLACENTA,) thence it is that the WOMB encreases and extends itself more in its _Bottom_, than in any _inferiour Part_.
WHEREFORE the WOMB being most extended in its upper Part, call’d the _Bottom_; and both the _Bladder_ and RECTUM below being soft loose _Parts_, it necessarily follows, that the WOMB may freely _ascend_ and _descend_ upon Occasion, as we often find it in the _Cavity_ of the _Belly_; which, however, does not happen to All _Women_ alike.
BUT, in short, these _extensive_ and _ascensive Faculties_ of the WOMB, chiefly residing in its _Bottom_; I would have it laid down for a certain _Maxim_ of Truth, that _These_ exert themselves, without any the least _Extenuation_ to the _Uterine Substance_: Which Position leads me directly to consider——