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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    in all cases alike. As in a regular presentation the top of the child’s head lies over the internal mouth of the womb, the child enters the brim of the pelvis with that part in advance, and in such a manner that the direct diameter of the head, being the longest, fits itself into the transverse (side-to-side) diameter of the pelvis, this being the longest; whilst the transverse diameters of the head fit into the shorter direct one of the pelvis. This position is the rule even where the back of the child’s body does not exactly face the side of the mother. The examining finger first comes into contact with the right parietal or side bone of the skull, which lies lower than the left; so that the tuberosity, as the prominence is called, can be easily felt by the finger behind the pubic bone. The side fontanelles and ear cannot yet be reached. Passing the finger in a straight line backwards from the parietal bone, it reaches the sagittal or arrow suture, which usually runs transversely across the pelvis, a little behind the middle line. Gliding the finger along this suture, tp the left it reaches the lesser, and to the right the gi^ater fontanelle. Occasionally both fontanelles are e][ually easy to reach, but usually one stands lower than the other; and at the commencement of labour, when the narrowness of the mouth of the womb will not allow the presenting portion of the child’s head to be felt over its whole extent, only one of them can usually be felt. Generally the back of the head points exactly sideways; occasionally, however, it may be a little forwards, more rarely backwards, so that the suture runs slantingly across the pelvis. As the head advances, the back of it sinks deeper dowm at first, whilst the forehead is kept back by the opposite pelvic brim (rotation of the head on its transverse axis—nodding), and then turns itself gradually to the front (it turns on its perpendicular axis). If the head has reached the middle of the pelvic cavity, the back of it will be found turned towards the left oval opening, and the forehead towards the right ischiatic