In the meantime, let the midwife endeavour to comfort her all she
can, exhorting her to bear her labour courageously, telling her it will
be quickly over, and that there is no fear but that she will have a
speedy delivery. Let the midwife also, having no rings on her fingers,
anoint them with oil of fresh butter, and therewith dilate gently the
inward orifice of the womb putting her finger ends into the entry
thereof, and then stretch them one from the other, when her pains take
her; by this means endeavouring to help forward the child, and thrusting
by little and little, the sides of the orifice towards the hinder part
of the child's head, anointing it with fresh butter if it be necessary.
When the head of the infant is a little advanced into the inward
orifice, the midwife's phrase is:--"It is crowned"; because it girds and
surrounds it just as a crown; but when it is so far that the extremities
begin to appear without the privy parts, then they say, "The infant is
in the passage"; and at this time the woman feels herself as if it were
scratched, or pricked with pins, and is ready to imagine that the
midwife hurts her, when it is occasioned by the violent distension of
those parts and the laceration which sometimes the bigness of the
child's head causeth there.
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