First of all, when the embryo starts to move and the membranes
burst, there issues forth the watery flood; then afterwards comes
the embryo, while the womb everts and the afterbirth comes out from
within.
10
The cutting of the navel-string, which is the nurse's duty, is a
matter calling for no little care and skill. For not only in cases
of difficult labour must she be able to render assistance with skilful
hand, but she must also have her wits about her in all
contingencies, and especially in the operation of tying the cord.
For if the afterbirth have come away, the navel is ligatured off
from the afterbirth with a woollen thread and is then cut above the
ligature; and at the place where it has been tied it heals up, and the
remaining portion drops off. (If the ligature come loose the child
dies from loss of blood.) But if the afterbirth has not yet come away,
but remains after the child itself is extruded, it is cut away
within after the ligaturing of the cord.
It often happens that the child appears to have been born dead
when it is merely weak, and when before the umbilical cord has been
ligatured, the blood has run out into the cord and its surroundings.
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