Florence Kelley (1859–1932) was a leading American reformer and activist against child labour. As an admired national icon, most of the biographical scholarly accounts focus on her achievements. This article, by contrast, analyses categorises numerous obstacles had to face in life, hereto barely discussed literature. Drawing mainly private papers from New York Public Library, autobiography, edi...

a primigravida who had been in labour fortyeight hours, with a large baby, a weakly contracting uterus, a good pulse and a flat pelvis, above whose brim the baby's head was floating freely. The membranes had ruptured early in labour and there was no sign of foetal life, but I thought it worth trying a forceps extraction before proceeding to craniotomy. Low Csesarean section was then in its earl...

placed during labour at different times, in different regions, and among different races?lying, half-lying or leaning backwards, sitting, squatting, kneeling, standing, hanging, swinging?to which has to be added the leg-hanging position advocated by Walcher. A practitioner may come upon a parturient patient in an unexpected position. Thus Dr A. A. Matheson, when acting as assistant in Pembrokes...