5. When a woman is delivered by herself, a strong child may be born perfectly alive, and die in a very few minutes for want of breath; either by being upon its face in a pool made by the natural discharges, or upon wet cloaths; or by the wet things over it collapsing and excluding air, or drawn close to its mouth and nose by the suction of breathing. An unhappy woman delivered by herself, distracted in her mind, and exhausted in her body, will not have strength or recollection enough to fly instantly to the relief of the child. To illustrate this important truth, I shall give a short case. A lady, at a pretty distant quarter of the town, was taken with labour pains in the night-time. Her nurse, who slept in the house, and her servants, were called up, and I was sent for. Her labour proved hasty, and the child was born before my arrival. The child cried instantly, and she felt it moving strongly. Expecting every moment to see me come into her bedchamber, and being afraid that the child might be someway injured, if an unskilful person should take upon her the office of a midwife upon the occasion, she would not permit the nurse to touch the child, but kept herself in a very fatiguing posture, that the child might not be pressed upon, or smothered. I found it lying on its face, in a pool which was made by the discharges; and so completely dead, that all my endeavours to rouze it to life proved vain. These facts deserve a serious consideration from the public: and as I am under a conviction of mind, that, when generally known, they may be the means of saving some unhappy and innocent women, I regard the publication of them as an indispensable duty. _Printed by G. Hayden, Brydges Street, Covent Garden._ +--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Notes: | | | | Page 7: Comma added after "abused". | | Page 9: "premediated" amended to "premeditated" | | Page 13 "her's" amended to "hers" | | Page 14: Comma after "her labour should come on" replaced | | with a full stop. "Sudenly" amended to "suddenly"; "pain | | und terror" amended to "pain and terror". | | Page 17: "senselesss" amended to "senseless" | | Page 18: "ignominous" _sic_ | | Page 24: "ignominous" _sic_ | | Page 26: "brobably" amended to "probably" | | Page 28: "indispensible" amended to "indispensable" | +--------------------------------------------------------------+