I should probably mention that Dr. William Smellie is an 18th century Scottish obstetrician, not a medieval or Renaissance doctor. Which makes it twice as horrifying, for me at least.
Also, Stefan’s Florigelium has a Personal Care section that goes into cosmetics, birth control and aphrodisiacs, and other topics of, well, personal care. (The Florigelium is a compilation of messages from SCA mailing lists, all organized into categories.) If I read one message correctly, a sock was a popular form of contraception. Yowch. I know people talk about a fire in their loins, but rugburn?
Check out the article on the recreation of a 12th century privy too. The SCA and the SDMB sometimes vie for the greater part of my affection.
Meta-Gumble, I really don’t think the baby lived in the Smellie case. The C-section baby might have, but the mother probably had less chance for survival. Aren’t you loving modern healthcare right about now? There are, for example, far fewer coffee enemas. And mercury treatments for syphillis! I’ve got the prickly terrors right now, just thinking about common treatments.
“There are, for example, far fewer coffee enemas.”
Actually, a bit of a Google revealed that this pretty practice has some modern adherents. (Why is it that shooting stuff up your wazoo is always presented as detoxifying?)
I’m not planning to try it myself, though. I take cream and sugar and I have a hard enough time finding my mouth first thing in the morning.
I read this yesterday and what should pop up in a book I’m reading this morning but the product named…Dr. Pierce’s Pleasant Pellets! Yeah, Pleasant. I wonder if he renamed them because Purgative didn’t sound as good or if this was another of his supposedly health-inducing concoctions?
By the way, the name of the book is “Pasadena” by David Ebershoff, which is good in a book clubby sort of way.
Coffee enema? Phah! During the clyster craze in France, the tobacco enema was popular. Then, somebody realized that with a special pipe, you could literally blow smoke up the patient’s ass. The effect of the nicotine was rather dramatic. They were considered a great way to start the day, and to revive fainting or drowning victims.
lillalette, I would imagine that the baby would already be dead after having an arm protruding for 24 hours.
IIRC a transverse lie CANNOT be delivered vaginally and must always be delivered by c-section. If the C-section was to have been performed in that case, the mother would probably have died as well. Before C-sections were safe, the only way to deliver the baby lying that way was in pieces. Even today, if they couldn’t perform a C-section for some reason, that would be the only course of action open to them.
With childhood mortality as high as it was, they were pragmatic about things like that.
One of the displays in the Mutter Museum is the skeleton of a dwarf and a partially disected skull. The sign with the display explains that a doctor was called to a bordello to assist with a difficult delivery. The woman was the dwarf whose skeleton is on display. Due to the size and tilt of her pelvis, vaginal delivery was impossible. The labor had progressed too far for a caesarian. In order to save the woman’s life, the doctor performed a “destructive craniotomy” on the baby. Again, IIRC it was too late and the mother died as well.
This is a lovely full-bodied wine, with a slightly acidic mouthfeel and a hint of poison oak and rotten turnips. It is best to serve this with amanita, slime mold, or other fungus.
There are, for example, far fewer coffee enemas. And mercury treatments for syphillis! I’ve got the prickly terrors right now, just thinking about common treatments.