The principles of midwifery : including the diseases of women and children / by John Burns.

  • Burns, John, 1774-1850.
Date:
1811
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The principles of midwifery : including the diseases of women and children / by John Burns. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    For a considerable time after conception, the uterus in- stead of rising higher up into the belly, falls rather lower down. It is not till towards the end of the third month, that the uterus can be felt rising above the pubis ; although at this period, it generally measures from the mouth to the fundus above five inches, one of which belongs to the cervix. In the fourth month, it reaches a little higher, and measures five inches from the fundus , to the beginning of the neck. In the fifth, it has become so much larger, as to render the belly tense, and may be felt, like a ball, extending to a middle point between the pubis and the navel, and measures about six inches from the cervix to the fundus*- In other two months, it reaches to the navel, and measures about eight inches. In the eighth month, it ascends still higher, reaching to about half way between the navel and the ster- num. In the ninth month, it reaches almost to the extre- mity of that bone, at least in a first pregnancy, when the tightness of the integuments prevents it from hanging so much forward as it afterwards does. At this time,' it gene- rally measures, from top to bottom, ten or twelve inches, and is oviform in its shape. For the first month, the shai* of the uterus is not altered; it is enlarged in every direc- tion. But after this it swells before and behind, and soon becomes globular, having the cyhndrical undistended cervix depending from it; after the fifth month it becomes more oblong, and by the seventh it resembles a balloon. These' calculations are not invariably exact, suiting every case, but admit of modifications. In pregnancy, the mouth of the uterus is directed back- ward, whilst the fundus lies forward, tfhis obliquity, how- ever, does not take place u^fl the uterus begins to rise out of the pelvls, and it always exists in a greater degree in those who have born many children. Prom this position it appears, that the intestines can ne- ver be before the uterus, but must lie behind it and TWn4 'ts sides. ^