And
when this happens, she must endeavour to draw forth the child by the
shoulders (taking care that she separate not the body from the head, as
I have known it done by the midwife), discharging it by little and
little from the bones in the passage with the fingers of each hand,
sliding them on each side opposite the other, sometimes above and
sometimes under, till the work be ended; endeavouring to dispatch it as
soon as possible, lest the child be suffocated, as it will unavoidably
be, if it remain long in that posture; and this being well and
carefully effected, she may soon after fetch away the after-birth, as I
have before directed.
SECT. III.--_How to bring away the Head of the Child, when separated
from the Body, and left behind in the Womb._
Though the utmost care be taken in bringing away the child by the feet,
yet if it happen to be dead, it is sometimes so putrid and corrupt, that
with the least pull the head separates from the body and remains alone
in the womb, and cannot be brought away but with a manual operation and
great difficulty, it being extremely slippery, by reason of the place
where it is, and from the roundness of its figure, on which no hold can
well be taken; and so very great is the difficulty in this case that
sometimes two or three very able practitioners in midwifery have, one
after the other, left the operation unfinished, as not able to effect
it, after the utmost industry, skill and strength; so that the woman,
not being able to be delivered, perished.
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