CHAP. XII. Signs if the Child be Dead or Alive.

ASSurance hereof is chiefly necessar, whether Instruments be used or not; for beside the misery of killing an Infant therewith in the Womb, or fetching it alive, with Arms or Legs lopt off, a living In∣fant must ever be more gently treated then the Dead, where the Mothers ease and safe∣ty only is sought.

The Infant dies by praeternatural Caus•s before Labour, or through a hard and tedi∣ous Travail, or then a praeposterous Figure: And appears also now to be dead, if it hath not been found stir for some Time,Page  178 even while all roborant and exciting Means have been used; yet had wont to stir fre∣quently before: Though some Infants have been whole Days alive after the Waters are spent, yet not found stir, through contracti∣on of the Womb, and their discomfiture. If the Woman perceives it tumble as a dead Weight upon the Side She turns to: If beside her Genitals feel cold, if She hath grievous sense of Cold in the Womb, or over the whole Body, without other evident Cause: If She hath great Pain and Weight upon the lower Belly and Privities (dead Things be∣ing ever most weighty) a continual desire to Ʋrine and Stool, while Nature attempts its Excretion. If moreover, her Pains slack and give over of a sudden, from Ces∣sation of the Infants motion and spurning. If the Burden or String come before: or if (putting up a hand after the Membranes are broken) the Infant be found cold, and of a cadaverous softness, no Pulsation felt of its Hands, nor yet of the String which beats stronger, the nearer especially to its Navel, but feels flagging and cold, soft, small, empty: Neither does it stir its Tongue when handled. If further, the Membranes of its Head, when now at the very point of Ex∣clusion,Page  179 be felt soft and slack, chiefly to∣wards the Crown, for how long they re∣main distended it lives: or if the Skull bones be open, waver, or ride much upon other at the Sutures. If again, the outer Skin separate easily from any Part of the Infant that comes forth: If withall, much stinking Filth flow from the Womb, as mostly in 2 or 3 dayes after its Death, if the Waters be spent, which else may preserve it from Corruption some Weeks: Though that faetid Matter may proceed from putrefaction of some Clotts of extravasated Blood only, which may remain in the Womb, with the Infant still alive. In this case also, one Infant may be dead, another living. Several griev∣ous Symptoms uses now to Infest the tra∣vailing Woman, which hath the account of such Signs, as Faintings, Swoons, Shiverings, Epileptick Convulsions, cold Sweats, and the rest; all which, if they continue any Time, carries Her off: And so the Corruption of the Infant, is the Cause of the Mothers death. Some make voiding of the Ordure an un∣doubted Sign of its death, Though others finds nothing more common in wrong Po∣stures, even where Infants are got alive: Yea Some will have all that come by the Page  180Breech to void it, which yet is not found where the Passage is large, & the Infant small.

There are yet other Signs much to be feared, especially when many happen to∣gether, as a Hurt, or Flooding, and not full Time, long sore Travail, with untimely Effu∣sion of the Waters, and dry Wayes: Exte∣nuation also, or flagging of the Breasts, a Belly more tumid and hard then usual; an ugly Complexion, languishing Countenance, sunk and troubled Eyes, pale Lips, stinking Breath, Head-ach and the rest: By all which we may gather the Signs of a living Child, being the quite Contrary: And chiefly if the Woman hath past her Course of Pregnancy, and come at her Labour in usual Health and Safe∣ty, and finds it then stirring, she may con∣clude all Right and hope a happy Parting.