Three hundred consultations in midwifery / by Robert Lee.

  • Robert Lee
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Three hundred consultations in midwifery / by Robert Lee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    127/230 page 119
    At last I felt the eyes near the symphysis pubis, then the mouth, then the smooth part of the head was felt high up in the hollow of the sacrum; the OS uteri was not fully dilated; it surrounded the whole of the presenting part. I advised the medical atten- dant to pass the catheter and empty the bladder, which contained a very considerable quantity of urine. This was done with difficulty. It seemed prudent to wait some hours, to see what course the case would take. At 2 p.m. the pains had entirely ceased, there had been no progress whatever made, and there appeared no prospect of doing anything but mischief with the forceps. It was accordingly determined to lessen and extract the head, to save the patient from the alarming condition in which she was. In spite of every care, the perinasum was lacerated, but not to a great extent; the pulse continued extremely rapid after the delivery, and in twenty-four hours all the symptoms of acute perito- nitis supervened, and the case terminated fatally. If there was any mistake committed in this case, it was in leaving this patient too long in labour, in the hope of saving the life of the child. Case 191.—On September 27th, 1857, I was re- quested to see a lady near Fulham, jet. 30, who had been forty-eight hours in her first labour. A great part of the head was within the pelvis, there was re- tention of urine, and great difficulty was experienced in introducing the catheter ; the vaginal and all the ex- ternal parts were prodigiously swollen, and the pains had entirely ceased; the head also was swollen. There were two very experienced and judicious prac- titioners in attendance upon the patient, and after due reflection we arrived at the conclusion that the forceps could not be applied without the utmost danger to the mother, and we could not be certain that the child was alive. The tongue furred; the
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