If the child offer the head first, he must gently put it back until he
hath liberty to introduce his hand quite into the womb; then sliding it
along, under the belly, to find the feet, let him draw it forth by
them, being very careful to keep the head from being locked into the
passage; and that it be not separated from the body; which may be
effected the more easily, because the child being very rotten and
putrefied, the operator need not be so mindful to keep the breast and
face downwards as he is in living births. But if notwithstanding all
these precautions, by reason of the child's putrefaction, the head
should be separated and left behind in the womb, it must be drawn forth
according to the directions which have been given in the third section
of this chapter. But when the head, coming first, is so far advanced
that it cannot well be put back, it is better to draw it forth so, than
to torment the woman too much by putting it back to turn it, and bring
it by the feet; but the head being a part round and slippery, it may
also happen that the operator cannot take hold of it with his fingers by
reason of its moisture, nor put them up to the side of it, because the
passage is filled with its bigness; he must, therefore, take a proper
instrument, and put it up as far as he can without violence, between the
womb and the child's head (for the child being dead before, there can be
no danger in the operation), and let him fasten it there, giving it hold
upon one of the bones of the skull, that it may not slide, and after it
is well fixed in the head, he may therewith draw it forth, keeping the
ends of the fingers of his left hand flat upon the opposite side, the
better to help to disengage it, and by wagging it a little, to conduct
it directly out of the passage, until the head be quite born; and then,
taking hold of it with his hands only, the shoulders being drawn into
the passage, and so sliding the fingers of both hands under the armpits,
the child may be quite delivered, and then the after-burden fetched, to
finish the operation, being careful not to pluck the navel-string too
hard lest it break, as often happens when it is corrupt.
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