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450 ESOTERIC ANTHROPOLOGY.
In all other presentations
than those of the head,
breech, and feet, we may assist nature by turning the
child, and bringing down the feet. No direction is re
quired for this, but the very evident one that they must
be brought so as to bend the body of the child forward,
aud not backward
When the presentation is natural, and the pelvis
not much deformed, if the labor is slow, we have
nothing to do but wait. Labors may last twenty-four
hours, thirty-six hours, forty-eight hours, and yet
mother and child do well. We must trust to nature,
and wait. We are not to give medicines, or apply instru
ments, until nature fails. The patient will seem utterly
exhausted ; but after resting awhile, the efforts begin
again, and seem as strong as ever. She declares that
she must die ; but she does not. No woman dies of
the mere effort and pain of labor. Children are born
with their heads mashed out of all shape, by the
smallness of the pelvis, but they soon come right again.
There are some cases in which art must interfere—
where the pelvis is too small to permit the birth of the
child, when the uterus is exhausted, when there is
hemorrhage that threatens life, and when there are
convulsions. In these cases send for the best surgeon
accoucheur to be had, but these cases are very rare.
Sometimes hemorrhage occurs at the beginning of
labor, from the placenta being over the. mouth of the
uterus. Such a case may happen once in a thousand
times. When it does, we must, as soon as possible,
dilate the mouth of the uterus, introduce the hand, sep
arate the placenta from the womb, bring down the feet,
and deliver the child.