the seventh month an expectant treatment is no longer allowable, and authorities declare the pregnancy should be terminated without delay.  The mother is in great danger from sudden free flow.  This treatment must be given by an experienced hand and only a physician can do it.  If the pregnancy is allowed to continue to full term the danger to the woman is very great, as the mortality runs from thirty to sixty-five per cent; but under modern treatment it has been brought down to five to ten per cent.  The death rate of the child is between fifty and seventy-five per cent.

[528 Mothers’ remedies]

Labor.—­Labor may be defined as the physiological termination of pregnancy whereby the mature foetus (child) and its appendages (after-birth, etc.), are separated from the maternal organism.

Premonitory Signs of Labor.—­Premonitory signs of labor, usually observed from one to two weeks before the onset of the labor pains, is a sinking down of the womb in the abdomen, whereby some of the unpleasant features of pregnancy are relieved, and the so-called “lightening” takes place.  The waist line becomes small, the breathing is easier and the general well-being of the woman is better, so that her friends are attracted by her feeling of relief.  But as a result of the womb descent and the consequent pressure, irritation of the bladder and rectum may occur, and she may have frequent calls to empty these organs.  The vagina secretes more actively, the veins enlarge, some dropsy may appear in the extremities, and the womb contractions of pregnancy, which have been painless, begin to cause more and more discomfort.

These false pains recur at regular intervals of hours or even days, and generally at night, last for a varying period and usually disappear in the morning.  They often deceive the woman and lead her to the belief that the labor has already begun; but examination of the cervix will reveal that this is not so.  It is well to bear in mind that the true labor pains usually begin in the back, extend down to the thighs and often around to the front and they recur at regular intervals, and with increasing intensity.

The beginning of labor is characterized by recurring pains at regular intervals and of increasing severity.  There is also a discharge from the vagina of mucus, and this is sometimes tinged with blood, “the show.”  If an examination is now made, it will be found that the cervix (neck of the womb) is shortened, and that the mouth of the womb is beginning to dilate.  At the beginning, the pains are usually in the back and spread to the abdomen and down the thighs; but they may be felt first in the abdomen.  They return every half hour or twenty minutes, but as labor goes on the interval is shortened, so that toward the end of the second stage when the child is being born, they appear to be continuous, and the patient feels as if she is encircled by a belt of pain; however, with all this, she will bear the suffering easier and better for she knows that progress is being made, and that she will soon be over the pains and the child born.  A pain rarely lasts more than one minute.