Women's Health

What starts labor at the end of nine months? I will lay my cards on the table and tell you I do not know. I do know that it is not the castor oil and quinine which so many unfortunate young women have taken. If they are ready to go into labor, this nauseous mixture will be followed by labor pains. If not, they will have only diarrhea and ringing in the ears. The common opinion (evidently shared also by obstetricians) has been that if one irritated the uterus, labor contractions would begin. It is not at all certain that quinine irritates the uterus any more than the rest of the body. Castor oil irritates the intestines because it is partly digested there and in this process the bland material breaks down into substances which cause tremendous bowel disturbances. They do not get into the uterus, however. I think the world would be just as well off if no more castor beans were grown.

A pregnant uterus may be very long suffering without being dissuaded from its original purpose to baby sit for the proper length of time. I once removed an acute appendix from a woman who was expecting to go promptly into labor. In fact she was in a lying-in hospital. Her uterus was bigger than a modern football, the appendix was behind it, and we of necessity had to be very rough with the uterus. Did all of this irritation start her promptly into labor? It did not. In fact it was two weeks before she had a normal labor.
At any rate, when the time comes, the muscular uterus begins a series of rhythmic contractions. What first happens reminds me of your morning experience with your tube of tooth paste. When you squeeze on it, there is only one place where the contents can come out. So with the uterus. There is an opening at the bottom. The baby is in a sac full of fluid. Each contraction squeezes this sac down into this opening which gradually gives way and dilates or opens. In the normal course of events when it is entirely open, the sac breaks, letting out the fluid and the baby’s head is forced downward. Mid wives say that the “waters have broke.” If the waters break early, it is called a dry labor, for the head is not so efficient a dilator. This is the first stage of labor.
In the second stage the head gradually pushes out, and after it is out the smaller body comes easily. The third stage is getting the afterbirth out. Once in a while the membranes which form the sac do not break and the baby is born with this veil of membranes covering, but not attached to, his head and face. The veil is called a caul and is supposed to bring good luck to the child. Usually it is thrown away with the afterbirth to which it is firmly attached, but sometimes it is wrapped up and kept. John of Gaunt is one of the famous characters in history who carried his on his person, like a charm, and believed that it brought him good fortune.
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WOMEN’S HEALTH