IV. SHE will find the _Orifice_ opposite to the _bending_ of the last VERTEBRÆ or the OS SACRUM, and feel it so strongly pressed against the said VERTEBRÆ, when the _Pains_ come on, that it cannot _fall down_: and lastly, she’ll feel the WATERS (if they hang over the _Passage_) in a thin _slender Form_. UPON _This_ the Skilfull _MIDWIFE_ finding these concurring _SIGNS_, _she_ may be assur’d that the WOMB hangs too much _forwards_; which _Condition_ requires the immediate _Help_ of _Ingenuity_ and _ART_ to correct this ill untoward _Position_, and to promote the _BIRTH_ expeditiously. But then _these Things_ are to be carefully perceived and distinguished in the _Beginning_ of LABOUR, before the PAINS have either closed up, or too much depressed the _Orifice_; yea, in short, even before it sensibly _opens_: since afterwards all those _SIGNS_ are variously chang’d and alter’d, till at last they entirely _vanish_. WHEREFORE let it be deem’d as a certain _Rule_, that the true _Posture_ of the _WOMB_ is always best discover’d by the TOUCH in the _Beginning_ of the LABOUR: At which time may the _Orifice_ be suspended never so _high_, the _MIDWIFE_ ought to penetrate so far, until _she reaches_ it; if not sufficiently with her FINGERS, the _whole Hand_ is to be judiciously used, and passed up that Length, because this particular TOUCH is absolutely Necessary for that good End: Insomuch that if any _Labouring Woman_ be against this _manual Operation_ or opposes it, _she_ thereby debars her _MIDWIFE_ of an infallible _Method_, of discovering the true _Posture_ of her WOMB, and consequently of taking the most immediate proper MEANS for _Her own_ as well as her INFANT’s Relief. BUT now supposing, after all, the _MIDWIFE_ to be certain that the WOMB _hanging too much forwards_, in a prominent BELLY bearing pretty much out, is deeper depressed than it ought to be; _She_ is obliged then in this _Circumstance_ to consider accordingly how to correct this _Preternatural Situation_, and assist both the MOTHER and INFANT for the best: To which End, _She_ ought FIRST to endeavour that the HEAD may _fall down_ into the PELVIS, even to the _bending_ of the OS COCCYGIS; and then, SECONDLY, _She_ is thence to advance the HEAD gradually, that the _Exclusion_ of the _CHILD_ may be expedited and intirely perfected at last. NOW in order that the HEAD, together with the _Orifice_ of the WOMB, may be so discreetly brought _forwards_ into the PELVIS, the _Woman_ is to be placed with the _upper part of her Body lower than the inferiour_; I mean, with _Head and Shoulders bending downwards_, and the _Buttocks upwards_; by which Means, the _Bottom_ of the WOMB is elevated, and gives the _Orifice_ an Opportunity of being brought more easily into the PELVIS.