Craniotomy and Embryotomy

At times, when all other measures failed, the accoucheur was compelled to sacrifice the fetus with a destructive procedure in an effort to save the mother.  For this purpose alone, an extraordinary variety of amazing and frequently complex, instruments were designed.  In general, these procedures were only performed in extreme cases where all else had failed an were abhorred by obstetricians who went to great length to assure fetal demise prior to proceeding.