Susruta Samhita - Mandhata Global

CHAPTER XV.
Now we shall discourse on the (surgical and medical)
treatment of the cases of difficult malpresentation of the
foetus and of difficult labour (Mudha-Garbha\ i.
The extraction of a foetus, acting i^in the womb) as
an obstructing Salya (foreign matter lodged in the body),
is the most difficult of all surgical operations, inasmuch
as actual contact or actual manipulation is the only
means accessible to a surgeon in the region of the pelvic
cavity, the spleen, the liver, the intestines and the
uterus. All surgical acts in respect of the foetus or the
enceinte, such as lifting up, drawing down, changing of
postures (version), excision, incision, the cutting oflimbs
and section, pressure, the straightening and the perforat-
ing of the abdomen, could not be done othenvise than by
actual contact of the hand, which may sometimes
prove fatal to the foetus or to the enciente. Hence the
king should be first informed (as success in these cases
is often uncertain) and all acts should be performed
with the greatest care and coolness.
We have stated before that the foetus is generally
presented in cases of difficult labour in eight different
postures or forms. The obstruction of the child in the
passage of parturition (Garbha-Sanga) may be effected
in three different ways, owing to its head, shoulders or
hips being presented in a wrong way and held fast in
the passage. Every care should be taken and no pains
spared to bring a child alive into the world, which is not
already dead in the womb. The sacred verses (Mantras),
possessing of the virtue of bringing out the foetus, should
be recited in the hearing of the enciente in the case of a