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GUIDE TO CHILDBEARING
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SECTION I.—Of the Womb.
In this chapter I am to treat of the womb, which the
Latins call matrix. Its parts are two;
the mouth of the womb and the bottom of it. The
mouth is an orifice at the entrance into it, which
may be dilated and shut together like a purse; for
though in the act of copulation it is big enough to
receive the glans of the yard, yet after conception,
it is so close and shut, that it will not admit the
point of a bodkin to enter; and yet again, at the
time of a woman’s delivery, it is opened to
such an extraordinary degree, that the child passeth
through it into the world; at which time this orifice
wholly disappears, and the womb seems to have but
one great cavity from the bottom to the entrance of
the neck. When a woman is not with child, it
is a little oblong, and of substance very thick and
close; but when she is with child it is shortened,
and its thickness diminished proportionably to its
distension; and therefore it is a mistake of anatomists
who affirm, that its substance waxeth thicker a little
before a woman’s labour; for any one’s
reason will inform him, that the more distended it
is, the thinner it must be; and the nearer a woman
is to the time of her delivery the shorter her womb
must be extended. As to the action by which this
inward orifice of the womb is opened and shut, it
is purely natural; for were it otherwise, there could
not be so many bastards begotten as there are, nor
would any married women have so many children.
Were it in their own power they would hinder conception,
though they would be willing enough to use copulation;
for nature has attended that action with so pleasing
and delightful sensations, that they are willing to
indulge themselves in the use thereof notwithstanding
the pains they afterwards endure, and the hazard of
their lives that often follows it. And this comes
to pass, not so much from an inordinate lust in woman,
as that the great Director of Nature, for the increase
and multiplication of mankind, and even all other
species in the elementary world, hath placed such a
magnetic virtue in the womb, that it draws the seed
to it, as the loadstone draws iron.
The Author of Nature has placed the womb in the belly,
that the heat might always be maintained by the warmth
of the parts surrounding it; it is, therefore, seated
in the middle of the hypogastrium (or lower parts
of the belly between the bladder and the belly, or
right gut) by which also it is defended from any hurt
through the hardness of the bones, and it is placed
in the lower part of the belly for the convenience
of copulation, and of a birth being thrust out at
full time.
