A manual for midwives and monthly nurses / by Fleetwood Churchill.

  • Churchill, Fleetwood, 1808-1878.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual for midwives and monthly nurses / by Fleetwood Churchill. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    point for you to remember is the very different di- rection of these axes, and that, whatever is expelled from the womb, must pass through the pelvis in the direction of the axis of the brim first, and then of the lower outlet. As a more minute knowledge of the pelvis does not seem to be necessary for the duties you have to perforin, I shall now pass on to an equally concise account of the organs contained in that cavity. The womb (or uterus) is a muscular cavity in which the infant is nourished until the term of nine calendar months is completed, unless the usual course of pregnancy be arrested. When unim- pregnated, it is about the size and shape of a small pear flattened, with a cavity in the centre as large as an almond, from which there is a small passage through the neck (cervix) of the womb. During pegnancy the womb enlarges very much, its struc- ture becomes looser, and its vessels increase in order to supply nourishment, through the placenta, to the infant. Possessing the power of contracting or closing upon itself, in due time it expels the infant by a series of those contractions called labor pains, and afterwards it expels the afterbirth (placenta). When the womb is emptied, its con- traction becomes permanent, and certain changes