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 conclude, without any further thought, that she is per- fectly able to bear children. A deformity which would disable a woman from bearing children would be of such magnitude as could hardly escape her notice.

Experience does not show that a woman's first labor is necessarily a difficult one. It often occurs that her first labor is an easy and short one; while subsequent ones are more protracted and painful. It depends upon the condi- tion of the soft parts of the woman at that period, whether more or less relaxed; and also upon the size of the child, which cannot be prognosticated.

The size of woman is never a hinderance in labor: small women bear large children with comparative ease.