FORCEPS
forceps Latin, tongs, pincers < *formu-ceps literally, taker of something hot (formus Latin, warm + capire to take)
The first use of Roman forceps was by blacksmiths, then by teeth-extractors. But an alternate origin may lie in ferrum Latin, iron + -ceps < caput Latin, head, giving an early, unattested form like *ferriceps 'iron-head' tongs or pincers.
For those who are congenitally illiterate and proud of maintaining such a dubious status, I here append the teeniest of notices . There is NO SUCH SINGULAR FORM as *forcep. The singular is forceps (from the etymology above you can see why) and the common English plural form is also forceps. If you don't mind sounding like a Cantabridgian priss-fart, a mincing precisian, you may use the obscure plural form forcepses , but it is awkward, rare, and more pompous than me at my worst. Even more recondite and show-offy is usage of the Latin plural forcipes. Do remember that, like the unknown *kudo as the singular of kudos, *forcep does not exist. Using *forcep brands you as a letterless yutz afloat in The Cesspool of Ignorance.
Roman dental forceps from 79 CE found at Pompeii
Forceps originated as flattened blades with a handle in ancient ironmongery. Some ancient blacksmith thought of joining the blades by crossing them at their centers and fastening them with a bolt that permitted their movement. There are many kinds of medical forceps used to grasp, handle, compress, and join body tissues or medical equipment.
Clamp forceps have an automatic locking device.
Mosquito forceps are very tiny hemostats with fine points, used to clamp off blood vessels.
Towel forceps clip towels to the site of a surgical incision or operative wound.
Chamberlen forceps are the classic set of obstretic ones: high, mid, and low, used in forceps delivery, to shorten extended labor or to quickly deliver a baby in fetal distress. A baby’s head may become lodged in the birth canal in an inappropriate transverse or posterior position. Often gentle rotation of the head by forceps solves the problem. There is of course no medical procedure that is free of risk, and this is true of forceps deliveries too.
Peter Chamberlen (1601-1683) was an English obstetrician and court physician to Charles the Second. Around 1665 he invented midwifery forceps, the original obstetrical forceps with no curvature. There have been many improvements to obstetrical forceps and these modern adaptations continue today.
Illustration of a breech delivery with obstetric forceps, painted by American medical artist Catherine Sinclair Holt ( 1914 - 1990)
Indications for operative vaginal delivery vary. In general, however, forceps or vacuum extraction may be called for during the second stage of delivery, when the fetal head is engaged and the mother's cervix is fully dilated and the labour is prolonged for hours so that the baby’s health and life are threatened, or the mother’s health and life are endangered.
Personal Revelations
This caption is from a medical site written by doctors: “The semi-circular red mark on this infant’s right cheek is a forceps mark. When forceps are needed to assist with a delivery, this type of superficial red mark can occasionally been seen on the sides of the infant’s face. In most cases, the marks are small (<2cm) erythematous streaks. These marks have no consequence and will spontaneously resolve. In rare cases when the skin is abraded, antibiotic ointment may facilitate healing.”
Really? On the contrary, forceps marks don’t always vanish as Snow White did, into the barn after palpating the Prince’s schlong. No, indeed, kiddies, some forceps marks persist — as did those on my own forehead, visible dents I bear to this day. Doctors always say, “But they are so small, so insignificant.” Then I am forced to point out that I have successfully grown geraniums in the forceps-made cavities of my forehead for forty years. Quite simple really. One begins by not washing one’s forehead in springtime.
My prominent frontal indentations are a reminder of the doctor who attended my birth, the aptly named Dr Blurr who, drunk as a distillery janitor, delivered me at eight-bells under a New Year’s moon, lo! these many eons ago. Those in attendance: two nurses, my father and, notably, my mother, stated that Dr. Blurr was, throughout my natal entrance, wreathed in an antiseptic fetor of Haig & Haig Pinch, a brand of Scotch whiskey. Spicily did it blend with the familiar hospital reek of diluted carbolic acid used to wash down the delivery room.
While clamping the wrong part of my reluctant-to-emerge forehead with Dubois obstetrical forceps (circa 1840 CE), Dr. Blurr sang heartily several well-known sea shanties, a song form he favoured over the somber Anglican hymns he was forced to conduct each Sunday as choir master of Saint Brit-Snot’s Anglican Church.
You may perhaps sympathize with my infant hesitancy in entering a delivery room and a world, the only world I knew at that moment, filled with a forceps-waving, booze-sodden doctor loudly singing “A bugger fine was wee Jack Tarr/ when he roped a seal to the gunwale.”
19th-century obstetrical forceps
This list from one North American manual of obstetrical procedure may be of interest.
Criteria for Types of Forceps Deliveries:
Outlet forceps
Scalp is visible at the introitus without separating labia.
Fetal skull has reached pelvic floor.
Sagittal suture is in anteroposterior diameter or right or left occiput anterior or posterior position.
Fetal head is at or on perineum.
Rotation does not exceed 45º.
Low forceps
Leading point of fetal skull is at station >= +2 cm and not on the pelvic floor.
Rotation is 45º or less (left or right occiput anterior to occiput anterior, or left or right occiput posterior to occiput posterior).
Rotation is greater than 45º.
Midforceps
Station is above +2 cm but head is engaged.
dental forceps from the early nineteenth century
© Copyright 2010 William Gordon Casselman
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