N this Chapter I have avoided the Use of Terms of Art, or explain’d them, in Regard to those for whom I chiefly write, as far as my Regard to Decency admits; but if any Word should occur not easily understood by any of my Readers, almost any English Dictionary will explain its Meaning; and it cannot be expected that any Book can instruct those who cannot read, tho’ I am sorry to say too many such assume the Office of Midwives.

As Curiosity may reasonably induce many of the Sex concern’d in the Subject of these Sheets, to be inform’d of somewhat of the Provision supreme Wisdom has made for the Existence of Children in the Womb, I shall briefly mention the most obvious Instruments relating to their Breeding and Birth, without puzzling my Readers with minute anatomical Descriptions.

The Vagina, or Passage, lies between the Neck of the Bladder and the large or strait Gut; it is connected at the inward extreme to the Womb, and called the outward Orifice at its beginning.

The Womb lies between the Bladder and Strait Gut, and is connected to both; during the Time of Breeding it increases in its Dimensions, and rising higher in the Body, by Reason of the Weight and Substance of it, with its Contents, at the Fund, or remote End of it, may be liable to swag too much forward or backward, or incline more or less to either Side, especially in such, as by their Occasions of Industry in Life are obliged to a Variety of indirect Situations; by which Means the inward Orifice is perverted from a direct Site with Respect to the Passage, and obstructs an easy Exclusion of the Infant in Travel.

The Placenta or After-birth, adhering to the Fund of the Womb, receives the Mother’s Blood, by the Umbilical-Vessels, or Navel-String, conveys it to the Child for its Nourishment, and retransmits what is superfluous; maintaining by the Intercourse of Arteries and Veins, the Circulation of the Blood between Mother and Child.

The Membranes closely connected to the Placenta, and the Fund of the Womb, between both which they seem to take their Rise, contain the Humours in which the Infant swims, the better to preserve it from Injuries, by its Pressure against unyielding Parts, and the Humours before, and after the Breaking of the Membranes, commonly call’d the Breaking of the Waters, in the Birth, very much facilitate it, by opening the inward Orifice of the Womb, and lubricating the Passage for the Child: These Membranes come away with the Placenta, under the Name of the After-birth, or Secundines, indifferently.

The Pelvis or Bason, wherein the Uterus or Womb is seated, is form’d by the forward Bones, commonly call’d the Share-Bone, the Hip-Bones and their Continuation on each Side, and the lower Part of the Back-Bone, all which are so contiguous to each other, as to form this Cavity, generally much larger in Women than Men, cloathed with Muscles, between which the Vagina is inserted.

The right Formation of the Pelvis, is of the greatest Consequence in Favour of an easy Birth; when the Bones forming it, forward and backward, and on each Side, both above and below, don’t too much approach each other, and prevent the Exclusion of the Child between, by a free Admission.