The Philadelphia practice of midwifery / By Charles D. Meigs.

  • Meigs, Charles D. (Charles Delucena), 1792-1869.
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Philadelphia practice of midwifery / By Charles D. Meigs. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

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    THE DEFORxMED PELVIS Notwithstanding a wise Providence has so happily constituted the relative dimensions of the fcetalhead, and the maternal pelvis, that the parturient female is, in the vast majority of cases, enabled to bring forth her offspring without any preternatural effort or suffering, it unfortu- nately happens that this just proportion does not always exist, and that, in consequence of disease, the pelvis may be smaller, or the head may be larger, than they ought respectively to be. Many writers speak of a deformity of the pelvis, which consists simply in an excessive amplitude of the whole of its canal, and great evils are supposed to result from this species of deformity. I question much whether deformity is a proper term for a conformation, which could only have the effect of rendering the birth of the child more facile and rapid ; nevertheless, as several in- conveniences are found to arise from such a conforma- tion, they shall be briefly mentioned and explained before we proceed to treat of deformed pelvis, more pro- perly so called. At the fifth month of pregnancy the womb has become so large that it rises out of the cavity of the pelvis, and is then supported upon the top of the pubes, so that the woman is from that time relieved from the incommodity which she would experience should the lower end of the uterus continue to occupy the excavation ; but, if the