Sex efficiency through exercises : special physical culture for women / by Th. H. van de Velde ; [photos, by E. Steinemann].
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Stretching of the entire muscle structure of the pelvic floor during child-birth * This plate demonstrates the condition present at the moment of maximum dilatation during the passage of the foetal head. The outlines of the bones of the pelvis are indicated by dotted lines ; the skin and all the fasciae which lie between it and the muscle layers, also thinned out by stretching, are, in this picture, omitted. The head of the foetus, on which the hair is clearly visible, is shown in the ground colour, whereas the stretched-out muscular pelvic floor is shown in a darker colour. The occiput is projecting under the symphysis pubis, while the shining forehead is stretching to the uttermost the soft parts of the mother's perineum. c. c. = sphincter vaginae (muscular constrictor cunni) and other constituents of the superficial muscular layer. 1. v. = levator vaginae i levator group. 1. a. — levator am ) (The differentiation of the various constituents of the muscular pelvic floor must, at this stage of the birth, be a matter of conjecture, because, by reason of the stretching and bearing down, the whole muscular floor is momentarily converted into a single thin sheet of muscle, and it is not till some time later that they gradually resume their normal features.) s. a. = sphincter ani. 1. Skin of abdomen. 2. Groin. 3. Buttocks. 4. Tip of coccyx. 5. Perineum. 6. Rectal mucous membrane, made visible by reason of the stretching of the anus. 7. Occiput. 8. Frontal region of the child's head. * Drawn by Professor Kalmar, under the direction of the author, making part use of several pictures in various hand- and text-books.