Volume 1

A treatise on the science and practice of midwifery / by W.S. Playfair.

Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on the science and practice of midwifery / by W.S. Playfair. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    Stage of pregnancy the abdomen is flatter than usual, on account of the partial descent of the uterus in the pelvic cavity as a result of its increased weight. As the growth of the organ advances it soon becomes too large to be contained any longer within the pelvis, and about the middle of the - third or the beginning of the fourth month the fundus rises above the pelvic brim—not suddenly, as is often erroneously thought, but slowly and Kg. 72. gradually — when it may be felt as a smooth rounded swelling. It is about this time that the movements of the foetus first become appreciable to the mother, when ' quicken- ing ' is said to have taken place. Towards the end of Size of the fourth month the uterus tumour at various periods of preg- About the nancy. SIZE OF XJTEETJS AT VAniOUS PEBIODS 0]? PBEGKANCY. reaches to about three fin gers' breadth above the sym- physis pubis. fifth month it occupies the hypogastric region, to which it imparts a marked projec- tion, and the alteration in the figure is now distinctly perceptible to visual examination. About the sixth month it is on a level with, or a little above, the umbilicus. About the seventh month it is about two inches above the umbilicus, which is now projecting and prominent, instead of depressed, as in the non-pregnant state. During the eighth and ninth months it continues to increase until the summit of the fundus is immediately below the ensiform cartilage (fig. 72). A knowledge of the size of the uterine tumour at various periods of pregnancy, as thus indicated, is of considerable practical importance, as forming the only guide by which we can estimate the probable period of delivery in certain cases in which the usual data for calculation are absent, as, for ex- ample, when the patient has conceived during lactation. For about a week or more before labour the uterus gene- rally sinks somewhat into the pelvic cavity, in consequence of