_Of a_ Dead Child.
A Dead Child is often born with abundantly more Difficulty than a
_living_ one, for the last by its Struggles considerably promotes
its own Birth; whereas, the first lies _immoveably_ in the _same_
Posture, without changing Situation by its own Activity.
When the Death of the Child proceeds from any _accidental_ Injury,
the _breeding_ Woman commonly knows it, by the Perception of a
_Weight_ within her, in the Part where it lies, instead of its
_usual_ Motions, which from that Time cease, and occasion, not
without Reason, a Solicitude for the best Assistance.
One of my Neighbours, whom I lately deliver’d, had the Misfortune
to fall flat on her Face, between the 7th and 8th Month of her
Pregnancy; from which Time to that of her Labour, above three
Weeks after, she had a continual Sensation of a Weight within her,
without _any_ of the Child’s Motions, as before this Accident,
although it was not succeeded by a _Flooding_, as is common upon
a _partial_ or _total Separation_ of the _Placenta_: She had
frequently been attacked with Pains resembling Travil, for above
two Weeks before it came on effectually; in this Case after I had
brought the Child by _turning_, I found the Secundines extremely
offensive, by Reason of their Putrefaction.
From Causes less manifest, ’tis a Thing more precarious to judge
of the Infant’s Death; the Woman in Travil has not perceived the
_Motion_ of the Child for some Days, while it was yet living;
a _cadacerous_ Smell is not infallible; the coming away of the
Child’s _Excrement_, may proceed from the _Compression_ of its
Abdomen in the _Birth_, especially when the _Buttocks_ present;
these Appearances therefore can only be a Foundation at best for
_probable_ Conjecture; nothing short of the Peeling of the Cuticle
or Scarf-Skin of the Child upon _Touching_ it, can be a _certain_
Token of its Death.