LABOR


The most useful homeopathy remedies for Labor symptoms from the book The diseases peculiar to women and young children by H.N.Guernsey…


Labor, or parturition, completes the grand function, of reproduction; and by it either spontaneously, or by nature, by art, or by both conjoined, the new being is ushered forth to assume an independent existence with all other isolated existences.

Labor is considered natural or spontaneous, when it is accomplished by the unaided powers of nature; and artificial or unnatural, when manual assistance is found necessary. Labor is also considered timely or at term, when it occurs at about the expiration of the ninth month of utero gestation; premature or untimely, when it occurs at any time between the first of the seventh month and full time. Provoked labor is one which has been produced by some mechanical cause, either accidental or designed. A retarded labor is one that is delayed beyond nine and a half or ten months of gestation.

PREMATURE LABOR. Premature labor may result from a great variety of causes, accidents of any kind, disease incidental to the pregnant condition, or other as, as described in the chapter on Abortion. For the precautions and remedies to be employed, in case of threatened premature labor see also the preceding chapter on Abortion. It may be stated here however that all women should use extra precautions at about the seventh month of gestation. In premature labors the first stage is usually longer in proportion than the second, which latter is generally longer than a labor at full term. Also vertex presentations are far less frequent, and cross, breech, or irregular presentations are much more frequent. Another proof that the foetus takes the most natural presentation and position from an inherent disposition on the part of the mother to secure this result. There is great danger from hemorrhage in premature labors; consequently more need of quite rest form the first symptoms, and ever after till all danger is past: and so much the more need of carefully selecting the proper remedy.

RETARDED LABORS. The ordinary time for gestation is two hundred and seventy five-days; but as there are exceptions to all other rules, we might naturally conclude they would be found here also. ( T smith’ Obstetrics, p. 212). Accordingly investigation has been made, and out of forty-three instances of conception after as single coitus, collected by Dr. Reid, all of them resting upon testimony as credible as can be abstained in such case, of which the average duration of gestation was two hundred and seventy five days, three were delivered at the 280th day; two on the 283d day; one each, on the 294th and 286th days; two on thee 287th; one on the 291st; two on the 393d, and one each, on the 296th and 300th days. According to the french law, every child born after the one hundred and eightieth or before the three hundredth day of marriage is considered legitimate.( Cazeaux, p. 378).

NATURAL LABOR AT TERM. In the study of this subject, two orders of facts must be separately considered, the one regarding the physiology of labor on the part of the mother; the other consisting of the movements which the child must execute in order to promote its passage from the uterus through the organs of generation. The former is to be regarded as purely functional; the other as simply mechanical. Let us first consider the subject functionally, with reference to the vital action of the mother.

CAUSES OF LABOR. These causes of labor have been divided in to the efficient and the determining causes. The efficient causes are unquestionably the vital energies of the mother, brought to bear in every possible manner upon the child for its expulsion, and at the same time to open up the way as much as possible for its exit. The uterus itself, acting involuntarily, is the chief agent in the expulsion, aided more or less by the voluntary efforts of the mother; while at the same time an involuntary dilatation is effected of the os uteri, vagina and external organs. All these processes on the part of the mother are purely functional and involuntary, as much so as are the processes of conception, gestation, digestion, nutrition, etc. The efficient cause of the labor is in only the last part of the grand function of reproduction. How important then that most sacred function should not be disturbed by any influences whatever; but should be sedulously watched ovary a careful and skilful Homoeopathic physician, ready to administer the proper remedy for whatever deviation from the normal condition may occur. How different when the blood is poisoned and the sense stupefied by anesthetics; how impossible then for the mother to give the alarm, o for nature to respond and furnish the symptomatic sings of danger till it is too late!

The determining cause may be any influence by which the efficient cause is set in motion. At the full term, when thee woman should be delivered, the determining cause becomes spontaneous; the grand function of reproduction is about to be completed; and here as in all other vital processes there is not delay; the work constantly advances till parturition terminates and completes to the very last the great process of reproduction. At the full term, or even a few days before, various kind of accidents, diseases or mechanical means may become the determining cause, by arousing the efficient cause in the contractive and Expulsive action of the uterus; but this function of parturition will not be so safely or so easily accomplished when thus excited by external influences, as when it begins in perfectly natural and spontaneous manner.

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF LABOR. The phenomena of labor may be arranged in three distinct groups or successive stages. The first including the whole period form the commencement of the labor to the complete dilatation of the os uteri; the second extends from the dilation of the os uteri to the expulsion of the child; the third terminates with the final delivery of the placenta.

I. The first stage. The approaching termination of gestation is indicated usually by various symptoms called precursory signs of labor. About the last two weeks a change become perceptible in the form of the abdomen. Its sides become more projecting as the uterine tumor sinks form the region of the stomach and epigastrium; so that respiration become easier and food can be taken with less discomfort. And in many respects the woman feels lighter, better and easier. This change results form the cavity of the body and of the neck of the uterus being blended into one by the softening and giving way of the os internum uteri. The calls to urinate now become rather more frequent; the sleep is more broken by restlessness, and waling becomes more difficult. The women becomes more clumsy; and a little later, glairy discharges take place from the vagina, which simply show an increased action of the muciparous glands preparatory to the final act of parturition.

Finally the first stage is ushered in by painless contractions, which after a while become somewhat painful, and finally more and so. The mucous discharge often becomes more or less tinged with blood; the os uteri dilates more and more with every orderly contraction; the parts become bathed with moisture, and the upper portion of the vagina gradually dilates simultaneously with the os uteri. During this stage the female may walk about, sit, or lie down, as she finds most comfortable. Her respirations is usually continuous with every pain; there may be a sort of shivering like respiration; at times violent shiverings and shudderings seize upon her, although she does not feel cold, and she wonders why it is she shakes so. This shivering is one of the phenomena most usually witnessed during an orderly first stage of labor.

II. The Second Stage. This is at once marked by a change in the respiration; instead of the shivering-like respiration continuing during every pain, the breath is held in as when making an expulsive effort at stool.

Up to this time the only muscles concerned in the contractions have been those of the uterus itself. ITs fibres have been employed in assisting in the dilatation of the os uteri; and when this is sufficiently accomplished, all the muscles of the trunk become engaged in the last act of reproduction. Hence the involuntary suppression of the respiration during the pain, and the expulsive efforts of every muscle in the trunk, including the diaphragm, to being the new human being to light.

As one contraction or pain succeeds another, the liquor amnii forces the membranes to yield, and they bulge into the vagina, forming a sack, or what is called the bag of waters, which finally ruptures, when the child is driven onwards with more rapidity than ever, the floor of the pelvis gradually distends before the presenting part, till at length the vulvae become distended more and more with every pain; until finally the head bursts through, followed presently by the remainder of the body, and the work of reproduction is accomplished.

III. The Third Stage. Before proceeding to the more extended consideration of the second or most important stage of labor, it will be proper to notice in brief the phenomena of the third. These consist in resumption of the Expulsive pains, usually after an interval of from fifteen to twenty or thirty minutes, or even more, after the birth of the child. By these contractions, the placental mass is gradually detached from its adhesion to the uterine wall; and expelled from the uterus into the vagina, or completely without the body. The subsequent pains, after-pains, serve the important purpose of completing the contraction of the uterus, and, by thus covering up the open mouths of the blood- vessels, (uterine sinuses,) of arresting the hemorrhage which otherwise would soon prove fatal.

H.N. Guernsey
Henry Newell Guernsey (1817-1885) was born in Rochester, Vermont in 1817. He earned his medical degree from New York University in 1842, and in 1856 moved to Philadelphia and subsequently became professor of Obstetrics at the Homeopathic Medical College of Pennsylvania (which merged with the Hahnemann Medical College in 1869). His writings include The Application of the Principles and Practice of Homoeopathy to Obstetrics, and Keynotes to the Materia Medica.