The Province of Midwives in the Practice of their Art Instructing them in the timely knowledge of such difficulties as require the assistance of Men, for the preservation of Mother and Child; very necessary for the perusal of all the sex interested in the subject, and interspersed with some New and Useful Observations.

CHAPTER VII.

Chapter 7121 wordsPublic domain

_The Difficulty from the_ Membranes.

An _unforeseen_ Difficulty may occur, when Appearances are otherwise favourable, from the Strength of the _Membranes_, obstructing the _Birth_, and requiring great Caution to prevent; for in this Case, the Operator must break the _Membranes_, in order to promote the _Birth_; and as the _Waters_, they contain, are a Means to open the _internal Orifice_, lubricate the _Passage_, and facilitate the _Birth_; the _breaking_ the _Membranes_ too soon, will render the Labour more _tedious_; and should it be too long delay’d, the Patient’s Misery would be _prolonged_; wherefore the Midwife must not break _them_, before the _Orifice_ is sufficiently _open_ to admit the Head, when she may tear them with her _Nails_, but by no Means pull them, for as they adhere to the _After-birth_, she might by that Means separate it, and bring on a Flooding.