Uterine Retraction, with Special Reference to the Mechanism and Management of the Third Stage of Labour

The question of the mechanism and management of the third stage of labour is at present in a curiously paradoxical position. The view that the placenta is separated in the main by an extreme diminution in area of the placental site is the popular one, and should have as its result the adoption of the Crede method of managing the third stage of labour. Practically, however, this method has been abandoned so far as the separation of the placenta is concerned, and an expectant plan adopted. The view of placental separation advocated by me in papers read before this Society and the Royal Society of Edinburgh has not been generally accepted. I urged then that the separation took place after the " pain," and it thus followed that an expectant treatment during separation in the third stage