One of her companions ran into the town, about 100
yards distant, for a knife to divide the cord. A few of the
female passers-by formed a screen about the mother with their
clothes, and the cord was divided. The after-birth came away, and
the woman was removed to the town. It was afterward discovered
that she was the mother of two children, was twenty-eight years
old, had not the slightest sign of approaching labor, and was not
aware of parturition until she actually felt the child between
her thighs.
Smith of Madras, in 1862, says he was hastily summoned to see an
English lady who had borne a child without the slightest warning.
He found the child, which had been born ten minutes, lying close
to the mother's body, with the funis uncut. The native female
maid, at the lady's orders, had left the child untouched, lifting
the bed-clothes to give it air. The lady said that she arose at
5.30 feeling well, and during the forenoon had walked down a long
flight of steps across a walk to a small summer-house within the
enclosure of her grounds. Feeling a little tired, she had lain
down on her bed, and soon experienced a slight discomfort, and
was under the impression that something solid and warm was lying
in contact with her person.
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