Chapter I: WE Shall suppose that the INFANT is ill-turned, and presents itself

_preternaturally_, with FACE, CHIN, HAND, ELBOW, SHOULDER, BREAST, BACK, BELLY, SIDE, BUTTOCK, KNEE, FOOT, or any _other Part_ or _Member_ first, in a WOMB tending _obliquely forwards_. In this _Condition_, I shall _first_ show the _MIDWIFE_ how, and by what _Signs_, she may know and discover such perverse _Postures_; and _secondly_ how, and by what Means, _These_ may be rectify’d, the _CHILD_ extricated, and the _MOTHER_ reliev’d in Life.

THEN as to the _First Point_, I would have it minded, that the TOUCH is the only _Expedient_, by which the _Situation_ of the _INFANT_ in any WOMB, whether _Oblique_ or _Direct_, is to be discover’d and perfectly known. Which when the _MIDWIFE_ finds to be _preternatural_, she needs not much trouble herself about what _precise Part_ offers or comes _first_ in the _PASSAGE_: Because of this short _Rule_, which I would not have her to forget; namely, That, when the HEAD does not present itself _first_ in this complicated _Case_, the _CHILD_ is to be drawn out by the _FEET_. For in this ill _Position_ of both the _INFANT_ and the _WOMB_, the _Version_ of the _CHILD_ succeeds more easily than if the HEAD was _foremost_: Wherefore I would lose no Time, but as Soon as I had discover’d all _Circumstances_ aright, I would commence my Business upon this Occasion, before either the _MOTHER_ or the _INFANT_ are much spent, that I may perform my _Work_, while they both can mutually concur with me towards their own _Relief_; That is, while the WOMB is yet suspended in the _upper Part_ of the PELVIS, and the _Membrane_ not yet broken.

IN order to this _Second Point_, the _Woman_ being commodiously placed, the _MIDWIFE_ is to pass up her _Hand_ into the _VAGINA_, and dispose the _Orifice_ of the WOMB to open, which is now sooner done than if the HEAD came _first_: _This_ being done dextrously, she is to put first _one_ or _two Fingers_, then _all_ of them successively into the _Aperture_; and when that is sufficiently enlarged, she is to penetrate into the WOMB, and either break the _MEMBRANE_, or wait its _spontaneous Breaking_, as she judges best by occurring _Circumstances_. In the next place, she is to look for and find the _FEET_; and, the _TOES_ being always turn’d towards the RECTUM, they are to be forthwith brought into the PASSAGE: proceeding still farther in the due and regular _Method_ of extracting the CHILD, as already taught[178] and dilucidated.