A brief essay on impeded labour / by Henry Toussaint.

  • Toussaint, Henry.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A brief essay on impeded labour / by Henry Toussaint. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    strain and bear down violently, until she is fairly ex* hausted, as if all difficulties were to be overcome by absolute force, and thus as the powers of the system are prematurely weakened, the uterus na- turally partakes of the general exhaustion, and be- coming enfeebled in its action, at length ceases to contract: and the head of the child having descen- ded by the earlier efforts will now remain incarcer- ated in the passage, producing pressure of the soft parts to the imminent hazard of the mother’s life. A little rest and simple restoratives might under these circumstances enable her to rally, and the uterus to recover its power ; but unfortunately this is not understood by native midwives, who consider every moment of rest as so much time lost, and in- stead of waiting until the woman had recovered her strength a little, and allowing the parts to relax and yield, they continue the cruel process of fatigu- ing the woman by causing her to make incessant, but unavailing efforts, without permitting her one moment’s repose, until the action of the uterus is to- tally suspended from sheer exhaustion, the progress of labour arrested, and then the fatal mischief from pressure begins. Dr. Blundell very justly observes that there is such a thing as an obstetric rack, form- ed by ignorance and presumption, of which in con- junction with violence it is the offspring; and it ap- plies with great force and truth to the native mode of treatment I have been describing. The following from Dr. Merriman’s work will show that a similar practice prevailed in France not many years ago: he says that an accoucheur lately pro- fessed to teach a secret, by which all women, even the most deformed might be easily delivered. His method was, to give an emetic to the parturient