A System of midwifery : including the diseases of pregnancy and the puerperal state . producing lateral wideningof the pelvis, by bringing a wider part of the base of the sacrum betweenthe ilia. This, of course, supposes some gliding motion in the sacro-iliac articulation, or, at least, yielding of the parts. The experimentsof MM. Giraud and Ansiaux seem to show that, in contracted pelves,the movements take place to an even greater extent, as if nature weredoing her utmost to obviate the disastrous effects of pelvic Matthews Duncan, in his admirable essay on this subject, pointso
A System of midwifery : including the diseases of pregnancy and the puerperal state . producing lateral wideningof the pelvis, by bringing a wider part of the base of the sacrum betweenthe ilia. This, of course, supposes some gliding motion in the sacro-iliac articulation, or, at least, yielding of the parts. The experimentsof MM. Giraud and Ansiaux seem to show that, in contracted pelves,the movements take place to an even greater extent, as if nature weredoing her utmost to obviate the disastrous effects of pelvic Matthews Duncan, in his admirable essay on this subject, pointsout. with great clearness, the very remarkable manner in which thesealterations correspond with the phenomena of the progress of the childin parturition. In the first stage of labor, for example, when the headis passing through the brim, the woman prefers the standing, sitting,or reclining posture, in which the brim of the pelvis is, as Ave haveseen, kept open at the expense of the outlet (see Fig. 4); but in thesecond stage she bends her body forwards, draws up her legs, and calls. Diagram showimreferred to. the oscillatory movement(Matthews Duncan.) 1 Barlow. Monthly Journal of Medical Science, January, 1854. 2 Matthews Duncan. Op. cit., p. 142. II.] THE PELVIS. 33 into action the abdominal muscles, which act by tilting up the sym-physis; in a word, her posture and voluntary efforts arc now preciselythose which may most effectively increase the conjugate diameter ofthe outlet by tilting back the coccyx. To the motion of the sacro-coccygeal joint, which is universally admitted, we need not at presentspecially advert. Prom these and other facts disclosed up to the present time we con-clude: 1st. That, in the last months of pregnancy, a marked relaxa-tion and softening of the pelvic articulations takes place. 2d. That, as the result of this modification in structure, an in-creased, though limited, mobility i- permitted, which tends to facilitateLabor. 3d. That in addition to the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectobstetrics, bookyear1
