Transcriber’s Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
It might seem that an apology was necessary forpresenting a new textbook on obstetrics for nurseswhen so many are to be had for the asking. But whena teacher is rarely or never satisfied with his ownwork it is too much to expect that he will ever fullyendorse the product of another. It may be thereforelargely a personal matter that none of the existentbooks seem to exhibit the fullness of information, theconciseness of expression, and the emphasis due to certainsubjects that the present writer would hope tofind.
The necessities apparently demand such an arrangementof our obstetrical doctrine that the book mayserve for class instruction and at the same time becomplete enough for post-graduate reference.
To secure this much discrimination is necessary. Theconfusion attendant upon overabundance must beavoided as well as the discouragement that is not infrequentlyproduced by a large book or a periphrasticstyle.
Hitherto there has been a tendency to teach thenurse too little rather than too much but conditionshave changed. Vocational instruction is not only moremethodical and far reaching but it is developmental.The present day nurse expects not merely to assistthe physician and earn a stipulated reward, but sheis constantly alert to attain her own maturity as a professionalwoman.
To be a capable and intelligent assistant it is notsufficient to have a clear comprehension of her particular8duties, but she must have a defined and critical conceptionof what the doctor is aiming to accomplish.
This is especially true in obstetrics where the nursehas the additional responsibility of giving support andcounsel to her patient in the various emergencies thatarise. Moreover, to attain her intellectual maturity thenurse must strive unremittingly to understand thecomplicated processes that take place under her observation.
She must cooperate with her doctor whose associateshe is and secure the confidence of her patient who reliesupon her for guidance in the perils she is facing.For childbirth is a peril. It is no longer the normalprocess it once was. Civilization has changed the shapeof the pelvic bones, altered the mus