Handbook of midwifery for midwives : from the official handbook of midwifery for Prussian midwives, published by direction of the Minister for Spiritual, Educational, and Medical Affairs / by J.E. Burton.

  • Prussia.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Handbook of midwifery for midwives : from the official handbook of midwifery for Prussian midwives, published by direction of the Minister for Spiritual, Educational, and Medical Affairs / by J.E. Burton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the position- or 'presentation is irregiilar, the presenting part generally sinks down into the pelvis late, often only during labour. In the condition of the neck of the womb also, there is a considerable difference between first and subse- quent pregnancies. In first pregnancies, even as early as the third month, the swelling, softening, and round- ing of the vaginal portion, and the transformation of the transverse split of the external mouth of the womb into a little round pit, render the suspicion of com- mencing pregnancy a very correct one usually. From ^he seventh month the swelling of the vaginal dome, in the neighbourhood of the neck of the womb, fre- quently shortens the vaginal portion. If the head descends into the pelvis in the ninth or tenth month of pregnancy, the anterior lip of the womb gradually disappears from pressure—without the mouth opening, however. By this the cervical canal is only apparently opened out. It runs to the lowest segment of the uterus without being shortened, but is pressed flat together from above in a backward direction. Still, there are cases in which, in the last months of preg- nancy, the cervical canal is really partially, or even completely; unfolded by the .pressure of the head. When the head remains high up, the vaginal portion is not quite obliterated even at the end of pregnancy. In women who have borne children, the changes in the vaginal portion usually set in later, and more irregu- larly. It is apparently not so much shortened in them; and even at the end of pregnancy, the swollen lips of the womb, often notched at the sides, distinctly project into the vagina. The cervical canal remains unopened. About the end of the eighth, or beginning of the ninth month, the external mouth of the womb begins to dilate; the opening, which is funnel-shaped, be- comes larger; and in the last month of pregnancy (sometimes earlier) the whole of the cervical canal admits the finger: the internal mouth of the womb, however, is always narrower than the externa], 4