A textbook of obstetrics . of the process and in its management,—the physician seesthe labia separate during a pain and the childs scalp come intoview, but, with the subsidence of the pain, disappear. With thenext uterine contraction a little more of the head appears, again,however, to disappear as the pain passes off, and so on withevery pain lor perhaps twenty minutes or an hour, althoughevery time, as more and more of the head appears, it looks tothe inexperienced observer as if that pain must be the last, until LABOR 295 finally the vulva is stretched to its utmost limit and the Laidiamete
A textbook of obstetrics . of the process and in its management,—the physician seesthe labia separate during a pain and the childs scalp come intoview, but, with the subsidence of the pain, disappear. With thenext uterine contraction a little more of the head appears, again,however, to disappear as the pain passes off, and so on withevery pain lor perhaps twenty minutes or an hour, althoughevery time, as more and more of the head appears, it looks tothe inexperienced observer as if that pain must be the last, until LABOR 295 finally the vulva is stretched to its utmost limit and the Laidiameters of the head are engaged, when, with a sudden shriekof pain from the woman, the childs head is horn. There comesthen a pause in the uterine action ; the head may protrude fromthe vagina tor a minute or much longer, while the womansnatural powers are being recuperated, after their tremendous ex-ertion, for a fresh effort. Meanwhile, the childs face turns im-mediately after birth toward one or the other tuber ischii, and. Fig. 1S3.—The transverse rotation of tin-head (external rotation). from the constriction about the neck becomes livid, and it seemsthat the childs life is threatened by strangulation. The medi-cal attendant feels at first an almost irresistible impulse to pullon the head and terminate labor. But this is a useless, indeed,a reprehensible procedure, for the child is perfectly safe, itsrespiration still going on normally in the placenta, and to ex-tract the shoulders rapidly through the overstretched andbruised maternal tissues is almost certain to lacerate the peri- LABOR AND THE PUERPERIUM. ncum. Moreover, the child is insensible at this time; it hasbeen almost comatose during its passage through the pelvic canal,and is now recovering, its brain-centers, especially that of respi-ration, becoming read} to respond to the stimulus to act whenthe child is born. Any unnecessary interference, therefore, atthis stage nt labor may harm both mother and child. Thewom
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookidtex, booksubjectobstetrics
