BUT notwithstanding all these natural and acquir’d _Qualifications_, the _young MIDWIFE_ is not to run at once into the _Practice_: Nor to hurry herself rashly to lay _Hands_ upon the _ARK_, before she is thoroughly well accomplished for so sacred a _Work_; lest (like _Uzzah_) _she_ be punished for her _Temerity_; whereof I have seen several exemplary _Precedents_. No, the _Work_ is too important, and the _Concern_ too weighty for that hasty indiscreet _Undertaking_; for there is no less than the _Life_ of the MOTHER, and _one_ CHILD at least, (if not sometimes _more_) at _Stake_: Both which may be soon saved, or quickly lost, according to the Good or Bad _Conduct_ and _Management_ of the _MIDWIFE_.
WHEREFORE, to the End, that she may obtain the necessary _Experience_, and perfect her Judgment, _&c._ in due Course, she ought to satisfy herself at first to go (for some time) as an _Assistant_ to some _skilful Woman_ of good Business, and so by degrees advance herself into the _Practice_: Because _Dexterity_ in this _ART_, is only acquir’d by _Time_ and _Exercise_; the _practical Part_ of _MIDWIFERY_ being attended with so many complicated Circumstances of _accidental Difficulties_, that it is almost impossible for any Persons, who never apply’d themselves this way, to believe how much it differs from all the _THEORY_, that the most ingenious _MAN_ can make himself _Master_ of.
I SHALL only (in this place) farther explain, what I mean, by the _MIDWIFE_’s _Duty_ to all _Women_ in _LABOUR_, to whom she may be call’d upon _critical Conjunctures_; as the latter part of the above-mentioned last General _Head_ purports: namely this, That the _MIDWIFE_, in the Course of her _Practice_, ought always to observe carefully, and follow strictly the _Rules_ of _EQUITY_ and _CHARITY_: That is, supposing the _MIDWIFE_ to be sent for by a Person in LABOUR, whose _Case_ is Natural and all Things likely to go well; and in the mean time, after she has taken her in Hand, is peradventure sent for to _another Woman_, whose difficult or preternatural _Case_ threatens imminent _Danger_.
IN this _Case_, the _MIDWIFE_ knowing herself to be better qualified than _Others_, and that _Another_ not equally expert is able to lay the _Former_, she ought to attend and assist the _Latter_: And _That_ also notwithstanding the _First_ be RICH, and the _Latter_, POOR; since _GOD_ is no _Respecter of Persons_.