NOT but that I would take the proper _Precautions_ along with me, before putting my _Hand_ to the critical _Work_, upon any such desperate or dangerous _Occasion_, by giving my ingenuous PROGNOSTICK to the nearest _Friends_ and _By-standers_ of the extreme _Danger_ that both LIVES may be in: Whereupon after thoroughly examining all _Circumstances_, with respect to the CHILD, whether _One_ or _More_, _Dead_ or _Alive_, &c. I would chearfully begin my _Endeavours_ to relieve the afflicted Woman, encouraging and exhorting her in the first Place, for GOD’s-sake, as well as _her own_, and the tender INFANT’s _Life_, to put herself entirely into my HANDS, to undergo her LABOUR patiently, and contribute what she can to the DELIVERY. BUT to return from this pardonable _Digression_ to what is here proposed; as I come first to speak of _Preternatural BIRTHS_ on the part of the INFANT, I would observe that all ill _Postures_ of the CHILD, in a WOMB well situated, are the only _Causes_ (meant in this place) of _Preternatural BIRTHS_ on its _own Part_: Which _Postures_ being very various and different, and each requiring a different peculiar _Operation_; I shall _state_ them particularly (as above-mentioned) and _that_ in their respective _Chapters_, after the manner following: _viz._— [Illustration] CHAP. XIII. _Of Præternatural BIRTHS, by the FACE’s being turn’d upwards; or bent forwards, and the CROWN backwards._ AMONG the many various _Preternatural Positions_ of the _INFANT_, I cannot but reckon THIS _One_: FIRST when, tho’ the _CHILD_ offers itself _Head foremost_, yet the FACE is turn’d upwards; and _that_ because the _INFANT_ in such a _Posture_ can never be commodiously bent and adapted to the _Form_ of the PELVIS. IN this _Case_, the _MIDWIFE_ ought to take special Care, that the HEAD _fall down directly_ and safely, without being _hurt_, whilst she endeavours to bring it _forward_: For this Purpose, she is to enlarge the _Passage_ as much as possible, dilating the _Privities_, and depressing the OS COCCYGIS; which however must be done, without lifting the HEAD with her _Hand_, for fear of bruising the FACE against the OS PUBIS. By this Method the _BIRTH_ (how _Preternatural_ soever) may be pretty well and easily perform’d. BUT because the _CHILD_ can only be said to be _well turn’d_, when it comes with its CHIN leaning upon its _Breast_, and its _Top_ or _Crown_ of the HEAD tending directly to the _Orifice_; I reckon THIS _another Preternatural Position_, when the _INFANT_ presents itself with the CROWN bent _backwards_, and consequently with the FACE _forwards_: By reason that in this _Case_, the _Orifice_ itself and all the rest of the _Passage_ must be much more dilated, than in the _natural Condition_; and the HEAD (being thus bent _backwards_) requires more severe PAINS and hard LABOUR, to make it slide through the _Passages_.