Child-bearing, always accepted as a natural process, tended to be treated with
dispassion but also brutality. At the height of early civilisations – Egyptian
then the Greek and Roman civilisations - methods of caring for the
child-bearing woman were well developed. However, with the decline of the Greek
and Roman civilisations the care of women deteriorated and the practices
developed by the Greeks were not heeded in Europe. Procedures in childbirth did
not recover until the sixteenth or seventeenth century.
METHODS OF
HASTENING LABOUR
Among the Greeks at the time of Hippocrates the
methods of assisting the woman in labour were often brutal. The woman was
sometimes repeatedly lifted and dropped on a couch.
This method of tying the woman to a couch, which was then
turned on end and pounded against a bundle of faggots on the ground, was
finally abandoned by the Greek physicians amongst other aggressive procedures
Accordingly,
the treatment of child-bearing women was considerably neglectful. During
medieval times the mortality rate for both mother and child rose to a uniquely
high level due to indifference to the suffering of women and to the low regard
for the value of life.
This
period was characterised by the fervour of religion and the squalor of daily
life, consequently nothing was done to overcome the enormous mortality of
mother and child at birth. Typical of this age were the attempts to form
intrauterine baptismal tubes, by which the child, locked by some difficulty in
the womb, could be baptized and its soul saved before mother and child were
left to die.
BAPTISMAL SYRINGE
For
applying this rite to infants before birth in cases of difficult labour. This
particular syringe was designed and described by Mauriceau in the seventeenth
century, and Laurence Sterne, in Tristram
Shandy, quotes the original description in full. This syringe was the
'squirt' of his 'Dr. Slop'. In some designs the opening of the nozzle was made
in the form of a cross to add sanctity to its use.
AN
OBSTETRICAL CHAIR
The obstetrical chair upon which women sat during
childbirth is mentioned in the Old Testament. The Greeks occasionally used a
special bed or couch for this purpose, but the chair continued in general use
until the 17th century and was often used as late as the 19th century. This
particular design was recommended by Eucharius Roslin in 1513.
Mauriceau of France in the seventeenth century
started the innovation of using a bed for childbirth.
OBSTETRICAL
CHAIR IN USE
A reproduction of a sixteenth-century woodcut
appearing in The Garden of Roses for
Pregnant Women, by Roslin.
In
Medieval times religion took over the practices of the midwives, thus the
Dominican monk, Albert Magnus (Albert von Bollstadt 1193-1280 ), wrote a book
for the guidance of midwives, and the Church councils passed edicts on their
practices. These instructions and edicts were not, however, for the better care
of the child-bearing woman, for the relief of her suffering or the prevention
of her death. They were designed to save the child's life for a sufficient time
to allow it to be baptized. The Council of Cologne in 1280 decreed that on the
sudden death of a woman in labour her mouth was to be kept open with a gag so
that her child would not suffocate while it was being removed by operation.
By the
beginning of the Renaissance practices improved little. Even in a normal
delivery the woman often died from infection or eclampsia. In difficult labour
she was left to die or butchered to death if her midwife was so inclined, or a
rogue 'surgeon' could be found to assist the slaughter. As a rule the matter
was left entirely in the hands of the midwife, and in 1580 a law was passed in
Germany to prevent shepherds and herdsmen from attending obstetrical cases. An
indication of the advancement in care of the childbearing woman and the
appalling conditions it had advanced from.
FIFTEENTH-CENTURY
NURSE AND CHILD
From 'Versehung
des Liebs'. Accompanying this picture were the following directions for
selecting a nurse ( translation is from Ruhrah, Pediatrics of the Past) .
"At times it happens that from
various causes the Mother cannot suckle the child herself. In such a case one
must choose a nurse for the child. Her qualifications should be as follows.
The
nurse should be of shapely stature, not too young and not too old. She must at
all times be free from illness of eyes or body. Moreover, her nature must be
such that there is no defect in her body. Mark also, that she must be neither too slim,
nor too plump. If there should be any defect in her, the child would incline
towards it.
She must have a good character, modest, chaste and clean.
Her food
should be in conformity with the following directions, so that the milk may
remain fully nourishing. I prescribe her to eat white bread and good meat, also
rice and lettuce every day. Almonds as well as hazel nuts she should not do
without. Her beverage must be pure wine; and in moderation must be used in
bathing. Nor must she do much labour.
In case her milk should give out, she
must not forget to eat peas frequently and in quantity, also beans, and in
addition gruel which should be boiled in milk beforehand. She must also rest
and sleep a good deal so that the child may thrive on the milk. Moreover, she
must carefully avoid onions and garlic; as well as any bitter or sour food and
any dish containing pepper.
She must eat no over-salted food, nor anything
prepared with vinegar.
Love's intercourse she must also avoid or go in for it
very moderately. For in case she should become pregnant, her milk would be
harmful to the child. In order that the child may not be harmed in such a case,
one must wean it from the milk."
This
scenario was for the privileged few because this was a time when public,
domestic and personal hygiene was appalling. The walled cities were for the
most part densely crowded and had no drainage. Filth accumulated in the unpaved
streets. The houses were described by Erasmus as containing open cesspools,
their floors were strewn with refuse, and in them was a pestilence of flies and
vermin. They were indeed sinks of filth and infection.
Ancient
Rome had paved streets, Paris had none until the eleventh century and London
had its first paved streets in the sixteenth century. In that same century
Frankfurt-on- the-Main began requiring each house to have a ‘privy’ and ordered
that the pigpens of the city should be cleaned.
Eucharius
Roslin, of Worms, in response to the wishes of Catherine, the Duchess of
Brunswick, wrote a manual from which the ignorant and careless old women who
made up the midwives might learn to conduct their work in a safer and more
efficient manner. This book was published in Worms in 1513 and contained
nothing that was new, but did bring to light the work of the Greeks; it was,
however, marked with the superstition of medieval medicine, and with the
horrible doctrine of medieval surgical midwifery.
The
prejudices which at that time existed in the minds of people, particularly in
cities, against the slightest participation of males in the practice of
midwifery, were so great that Roslin, who had probably never seen a child born,
may have felt something of the humour of his position, for the title of his
book was The Garden of Roses for Pregnant Women and Midwives. The book,
nevertheless, accomplished much good; it was extensively plagiarised by later
authors and was translated into Latin, French, Dutch, and English - in which
the title became The Byrthe of Mankynde.
EUCHARIUS
ROSLIN PRESENTING HIS BOOK TO THE DUCHESS OF BRUNSWICK
A PAGE FROM 'THE BYRTHE OF MANKYNDE' - WILLIAM
RAYNALDE'S ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF ROSLIN'S BOOK ON MIDWIFERY
The
exclusion of men from the study of child-bearing women tended to reach
fanatical extremes. In 1522, Dr Wertt, of Hamburg wore the dress of a woman to
attend and study a case of labour; he was punished for this lack of reverence
by being burned to death.
Three Kids Gripped By Evil By Polly Mullaney
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