This obstetrical wax model shows the placental stage of delivery, in which the placenta separates from its bed and is expelled by the retraction of the uterine muscle. The uterus is still round and bulky, with the uterine mouth at maximum dilation. The placenta has not yet separated from its attachment, but responds to the shrinking and retraction of its site of implantation. This was probably the final stage of a breech presentation, as we may deduce from the imprint mold of the head—lost in the 1966 flood—in the terminal portion of the birth canal.

The model was commissioned by Felice Fontana, who was working on the installation of the Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale of Florence, from the sculptor Giuseppe Ferrini and his assistant Clemente Susini.