Tuesday, May 29, 2007

You know so much that it ain't so...

Pleasingly, as the baby sinks lower and the head engages with the rim of the cervix (or pelvis or pelmet), the medical bods have a way of measuring the descent, in fifths. So as the major circumference of the head settles, it is progressively one-, two-, three- and four-fifths engaged.

Except some midwifery teams use the inverse scale: three-fifths, for example, meaning only two-fifths in the slot with three to go.

It's not so much that you know, it's that you know so much that it ain't so...

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