Читать книгу The Mother and Her Child - Lena K. Sadler - Страница 99

If all the mothers who read this volume could bear children with the comfort Mrs. C. does, I should be happy, indeed.

At four o'clock one morning a very much excited father telephoned me, "Hurry, quick, Doctor, it's almost here." It was well that we did hurry, for the first sign the little mother had was the deluge of the waters—at this point the husband ran to telephone for the doctor—no more pains for thirty-eight minutes (just as we entered the door) and the baby was there. But such is not usually the case, nor will it be, as labor usually progresses along the lines of conscious dilating pains, occurring at intervals twenty minutes apart at first, later drawing nearer together until they are three to five minutes apart. This "first stage of labor" lasts from one to fifteen hours—during which time the tiny door to the uterine room which was originally about one-eighth of an inch open—dilates sufficiently to allow the passage of the head, shoulders and body of the fully developed child.

About this time the bag of waters usually bursts, and, as a rule, this marks the beginning of the "second stage of labor." The amount of water passed varies in amount. Should the rupture take place before the door is fully open, then labor proceeds with difficulty and the condition is known as "dry labor."

The head after proper rotation now begins the descent; and here the pains begin to change from the sharp, lancinating, cramp-like pains which begin in the back and move around to the front, to those of the "bearing down" variety, while at the same time there begins to appear the bulging at the perineum, which means that the head is about to be born. At this time great stress is brought to bear upon the perineum and often, in spite of anything that can be done to prevent it, the perineum is more or less lacerated.

As soon as the baby is born the "second stage of labor" has passed and within thirty to fifty minutes the close of the third stage of labor is marked by the passage of the placenta or "afterbirth."