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Midwives and Childbirth in European History

© Rachelle Hughes

EDITORS NOTE: I just want to apologize for the briefness of this article upfront. I am having a baby this month and my energy and time seems limited. With that said, I chose this subject for obvious reasons. Unfortunately tracking down information on childbirth during European history is no easy task. So, I leave you with a few tidbits.

Childbirth was definitely a woman's domain throughout European history. Therefore, with the few examples of women's writing that we are left with, it is unfortunate that there is so little information. While I strongly believe that childbirth was something that was discussed as heartily between women in history as it is today, very few written accounts from the woman's point of view exist.

We do know from the high mortality rates of both mothers and babies that childbirth was a dangerous undertaking. While there were well-trained midwives, there were also an abundance of ill trained, superstitious midwives who botched labor. Occasionally, a male doctor was called in for surgery only.

Midwives delivered the babies of queens and peasants alike in a lying-in chamber in the home. Men were excluded from these rooms, but they were usually overflowing with other women. A midwife was usually accompanied by an assistant. Assistants trained upwards of ten years before they were on their own. Other women relatives and friends often crowded the lying-in chamber, providing support and running errands. Along with a hot fire that kept boiling water available, the abundance of people in the room must have made stifling hot conditions.

A woman probably gave birth in a sitting or squatting position, much like what is called the birthing squat in yoga. Once the mother started pushing, it was expected that she should give birth within 20 contractions. If she did not, there were a number of superstitious practices that were employed in order to aid her quick delivery. Attending women would open drawers, cupboards, untie knots or shoot an arrow to symbolize the opening of the womb.

Once the baby was born, the baby was bathed in water, or in wealthy homes in milk, wine, olive oil or with rose petals. The medieval woman doctor Trotula recommended rubbing the child's palate with honey and cleansing the tongue with hot water "in order that he may speak more correctly." Other medieval medical treatises warned that an infant's ears must be pressed and shaped immediately and that the babies limbs should be bound in swaddling bands to shape them correctly. The practice of breast feeding among the wealthy changed throughout European history. But during the middle ages the wealth employed a wet-nurse. Artisans and peasants usually nursed their own children.

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