Also, excrements retained cause
great difficulty, and so does a stone in the bladder: or when the
bladder is full of urine, without being able to void it, or when the
woman is troubled with great and painful piles. It may also be from the
passages, when the membranes are thick, the orifice too narrow, and the
neck of the womb not sufficiently open, the passages strained and
pressed by tumours in the adjacent parts, or when the bones are too
firm, and will not open, which very much endangers the mother and the
child; or when the passages are not slippery, by reason of the waters
having broken too soon, or membranes being too thin. The womb may also
be out of order with regard to its bad situation or conformation, having
its neck too narrow, hard and callous, which may easily be so naturally,
or may come by accident, being many times caused by a tumour, an
imposthume, ulcer or superfluous flesh.
As to hard labour occasioned by the child, it is when the child happens
to stick to a mole, or when it is so weak it cannot break the membranes;
or if it be too big all over, or in the head only; or if the natural
vessels are twisted about its neck; when the belly is hydropsical; or
when it is monstrous, having two heads, or joined to another child,
also, when the child is dead or so weak that it can contribute nothing
to its birth; likewise when it comes wrong, or there are two or more.
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