Dr. Conquest's outlines of midwifery : intended as a text-book for students, and a book of reference for junior practitioners.

  • Conquest, Dr.
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Conquest's outlines of midwifery : intended as a text-book for students, and a book of reference for junior practitioners. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    205/370 (page 191)
    The breech is found at the suj)erior aperture of the pelvis differently situated, but this is far from being unimportant, because, if its longest diameter from side to side do not correspond to the lateral or diagonal diameter of the pelvis, it enters the brim vpith consi- derable difficulty. It is only necessary to advert to the practice of pushing up the breech, and bringing down the feet, to deprecate such maltreatment; nor is it much more prudent to employ blunt hooks fixed in the groins to expedite the progress of these labours, which, if left to the natural powers of the mother, are usually terminated safely, though almost always slowly. [If the legs be extracted before tbe expulsion of the breech, the death of the child generally ensues. Whilst the thighs of the infant remain flexed, they serve, to a certain extent, as a means of protection for the cord. — J. M. W.] When the breech is expelled without the os exter- num, then the direction of the toes, and all other cir- cumstances requiring attention in presentations of the feet, must be borne in mind, because the labour becomes to all intents and purposes one of that kind. The other varieties of this order of labours require (almost invariably) the operation of TUENING, Which consists in passing a hand into the uterus, to find and bring down the feet or knees, and which produces that revolution in the situation of the child