In this Chapter I have avoided the Use of Terms of Art, or
explain’d them, in Regard to those for whom I chiefly write, as
far as my Regard to Decency admits; but if any Word should occur
not easily understood by any of my Readers, almost any _English_
Dictionary will explain its Meaning; and it cannot be expected that
any Book can instruct those who cannot read, tho’ I am sorry to say
too many such assume the Office of _Midwives_.
As Curiosity may reasonably induce many of the Sex concern’d in
the Subject of these Sheets, to be inform’d of somewhat of the
Provision supreme Wisdom has made for the Existence of Children in
the Womb, I shall briefly mention the most obvious _Instruments_
relating to their Breeding and Birth, without puzzling my Readers
with minute _anatomical_ Descriptions.
The Vagina, or Passage, lies between the Neck of the _Bladder_ and
the large or strait Gut; it is connected at the inward extreme to
the _Womb_, and called the _outward Orifice_ at its beginning.
The _Womb_ lies between the _Bladder_ and _Strait Gut_, and is
connected to both; during the Time of _Breeding_ it increases in
its _Dimensions_, and rising higher in the Body, by Reason of
the Weight and Substance of it, with its Contents, at the Fund,
or remote End of it, may be liable to swag too much _forward_ or
_backward_, or incline more or less to either Side, especially in
such, as by their Occasions of Industry in Life are obliged to
a Variety of _indirect_ Situations; by which Means the _inward_
Orifice is perverted from a _direct Site_ with Respect to the
Passage, and obstructs an easy Exclusion of the Infant in Travel.
The _Placenta_ or _After-birth_, adhering to the _Fund_ of the
_Womb_, receives the _Mother_’s Blood, by the _Umbilical-Vessels_,
or _Navel-String_, conveys it to the Child for its Nourishment, and
retransmits what is superfluous; maintaining by the Intercourse of
_Arteries_ and _Veins_, the Circulation of the Blood between Mother
and Child.
The _Membranes_ closely connected to the _Placenta_, and the _Fund_
of the _Womb_, between both which they seem to take their Rise,
contain the _Humours_ in which the Infant swims, the better to
preserve it from Injuries, by its Pressure against _unyielding_
Parts, and the _Humours_ before, and after the _Breaking_ of the
_Membranes_, commonly call’d the _Breaking of the Waters_, in the
Birth, very much facilitate it, by opening the _inward Orifice_
of the _Womb_, and lubricating the _Passage_ for the Child: These
_Membranes_ come away with the _Placenta_, under the Name of the
_After-birth_, or _Secundines_, indifferently.
The _Pelvis_ or _Bason_, wherein the _Uterus_ or _Womb_ is seated,
is form’d by the _forward_ Bones, commonly call’d the _Share-Bone_,
the _Hip-Bones_ and their Continuation on each Side, and the lower
Part of the _Back-Bone_, all which are so contiguous to each other,
as to form this Cavity, generally much larger in Women than Men,
cloathed with Muscles, between which the _Vagina_ is inserted.
The right Formation of the _Pelvis_, is of the greatest Consequence
in Favour of an _easy_ Birth; when the _Bones_ forming it,
_forward_ and _backward_, and on _each_ Side, both above and below,
don’t too much approach each other, and prevent the Exclusion of
the Child between, by a free Admission.