Having thus looked into the cases of hard labour, I will now show the industrious midwife how she may minister some relief to the labouring woman under these difficult circumstances. But it will require judgment and understanding in the midwife, when she finds a woman in difficult labour, to know the particular obstruction, or cause thereof, that so a suitable remedy may be applied; as, for instance, when it happens by the mother’s being too young or too strait, she must be gently treated, and the passages anointed with oil, hog’s lard, or fresh butter, to relax and dilate them the easier, lest there should happen a rupture of any part when the child is born; for sometimes the peritoneum breaks, with the skin from the privities of the fundament. But if the woman be in years with her first child, let her lower parts be anointed to mollify the inward orifice, which, in such a case being more hard and callous, does not easily yield to the distention of labour, which is the true cause why such women are longer in labour, and also why their children, being forced against the inward orifice of the womb (which, as I have said, is a little callous) are born with great humps and bruises on their heads. Those women that are very small and misshapen, should not be put to bed, at least, till their waters are broke, but rather kept upright, and assisted to walk about the chamber, by being supported under the arms; for, by that means, they will breathe more freely, and mend their pains better than on the bed, because there they lie on a heap. As for those that are very lean, and have hard labour from that cause, let them moisten the parts with oil and ointments, to make them more smooth and slippery, that the head of the infant and the womb be not so compressed and bruised by the hardness of the mother’s bones which forms the passage. If the cause be weakness, she ought to be strengthened, the better to support her pains; to which end give her good jelly broths, and a little wine with a toast in it. If she fears her pains, let her be comforted, assuring her that she will not endure many more, but be delivered in a little time. But if her pains be slow and small, or none at all, they must be provoked by frequent and pretty strong clysters; let her walk about the chamber, that so the weight of child may help them forwards. If she flood, or have strong convulsions, she must be then helped by a speedy delivery; the operation I shall relate in the section of unnatural labours. If she be costive, let her use clysters which may also help to dispel the cholic, at those times very injurious, because attended with useless pains, and because such bear not downward, and so help not to forward the birth. If she find an obstruction or stoppage of the urine, by reason the womb bears too much on the bladder, let her lift up her abdomen a little with her hand, and try if she receives any benefit; if she finds she does not, it will be necessary to