Obstetric operations : including the treatment of hmorrhage / by Robert Barnes ; with additions, by Benjamin F. Dawson.

  • Robert Barnes
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Obstetric operations : including the treatment of hmorrhage / by Robert Barnes ; with additions, by Benjamin F. Dawson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    60/504 (page 46)
    CHAPTEE IV. The Application of the Short Forceps—Head in First Position—Head in Second Position—Objections to Short Forceps. [Before considering the mode of application of the long and short forceps, it is well to call attention to the circnm- stances in which the instrument is resorted to: when the head is engaged at the inferior strait; in the pelvic canal at any point between the two straits ; at the superior strait; after the head only remains at the brim, in the pelvic cavity, or at the outlet ? When compelled by the urgency of the case to resort to forceps delivery, it is advisable to inform the patient and her friends of the procedure, and at the same time remove their apprehension of any injury being done to the child or mother. Understanding this, the pa- tient will the more readily and cheerfully submit, and thus expedite matters considerably.] We now come to the mode of applying the short forceps. The head we assume to be in the pelvis, lying in the right oblique diameter. The child's right ear will be a little to the right of, and aljove, the symphysis pubis. We have first to consider certain conditions, some of which are necessary to the proper use of the forceps—some of which are not ne- cessary, but favorable. 1. The membranes must be rup- tured. 2. The cervix uteri must be fairly dilated. 3. The bladder should be empty. 4. The patient must be in a con- venient position. Abroad, the patient is usually placed in lithotomy position, on the edge of the bed. With us the