When the child
presents thus, the first thing to be done after it is perceived, must
be, to prevent it from coming down more, or engaging further in the
passage; and therefore, the operator having placed the woman on the bed,
with her head lower than her buttocks, must guide and put back the
infant's hand with his own as much as may be, or both of them, if they
both come down, to give way to the child's head; and this being done,
if the head be on one side, it must be brought into its natural posture
in the middle of the passage, that it may come in a straight line, and
then proceed as directed in the foregoing section.
SECT. VI.--_How a Woman ought to be delivered, when the Hands and Feet
of the Infant come together._
There are none but will readily grant, that when the hands and feet of
an infant present together, the labour must be unnatural, because it is
impossible a child should be born in that manner. In this case,
therefore, when the midwife guides her hand towards the orifice of the
womb she will perceive only many fingers close together, and if it be
not sufficiently dilated, it will be a good while before the hands and
feet will be exactly distinguished; for they are sometimes so shut and
pressed together, that they seem to be all of one and the same shape,
but where the womb is open enough to introduce the hand into it, she
will easily know which are the hands and which are the feet; and having
taken particular notice thereof, let her slide up her hand and presently
direct it towards the infant's breast, which she will find very near,
and then let her gently thrust back the body towards the bottom of the
womb, leaving the feet in the same place where she found them.
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