A Course of Lectures ON THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF OBSTETRICS

W.Tyler Smith
1856 The Lancet  
GENTLEMEN,-This is the most positive of all the operations of midwifery. The only other procedure with which it bears comparison, is the induction of premature labour before the viability of the child has been reached. In the Induction of Premature Labour after the seventh month; in Turning; in the use of the Forceps, and even in the Caesarian section, a chance of safety is afforded to both mother and child; but in Embryotomy, the child, if alive before the commencement of the operation, is
more » ... itably sacrificed. The operation is considered necessary in certain cases of deformed pelvis, obstruction from tumours, &c., when the induction of premature labour has been neglected or omitted; in cases of arm presentations, hydrocephalus, convulsions, heamorrhage, exhaustion, &c., when the preservation of the mother imperatively calls for delivery, and when the child cannot be extracted by the long or short forceps, or by turning. Under these circumstances, there is no question amongst the great majority of British accoucheurs as to the propriety and fitness of the performance of craniotomy or embryotomy. As Denman justly observes, in deciding in favour of this operation, we are only following the dictates of Nature, who, in difficult labours, commonly sacrifices the child before the mother is destroyed. It is equally a canon in obstetrics, that the operation should never be performed except after consultation, and in the face of the most urgent necessity; and it may be said, that apart from all question of the Caesarian section, there is a general belief on the Continent, and in America, that the operation has always been performed too frequently by obstetricians in this country.
doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(02)60518-5 fatcat:o3uelwr2dbdonanep3t5gqlz7m