A manual of obstetric practice for students and practitioners / by A. Dührssen ; translated and edited from the 6th emended and enlarged edition by John W. Taylor and Frederick Edge.

  • Alfred Dührssen
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of obstetric practice for students and practitioners / by A. Dührssen ; translated and edited from the 6th emended and enlarged edition by John W. Taylor and Frederick Edge. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    51/346 (page 29)
    PHYSIOLOGY OF LABOUR. Definition of Labour. By labour we mean the expulsion of the foetus and its membranes from the mother's body by the natural forces. The expulsive forces are contraction of the uterus. ( the pains ) and abdominal pressure. The pains have first to dilate the cervical caual before they, together ■with the abdominal pressure, can drive the foetus out through the cervical canal and the vagina. The Causation of Labour and the Labour Pains. First Theory.—Labour sets in as soon as the uterus has. become distended to a certain degree. Evidence.—In twin pregnancy or hydramnion, where the uterus becomes distended at the seventh month to the degree which is usual at the tenth, premature labour is. common. Second Theory.—Labour comes on through loosening of the connection between the uterine wall and the foetal envelopes (fatty degeneration or necrobiosis [Klein] of the decidua). Third and -probably correct Theory.—The causation lies in the foetus itself. Labour comes on as soon as the foetus is ripe. Evidence.—In extrauterine pregnancy, in which the uterus is empty and the two ßrst theories cannot be