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| the history of midwifery: A History of Midwifery in the United States Joyce E. Thompson, DrPH, RN, CNM, FAAN, FACNM, Helen Varney Burst, RN, CNM, MSN, DHL (Hon), FACNM, 2015-11-04 Written by two of the professionís most prominent midwifery leaders, this authoritative history of midwifery in the United States, from the 1600s to the present, is distinguished by its vast breadth and depth. The book spans the historical evolution of midwives as respected, autonomous health care workers and midwifery as a profession, and considers the strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities for this discipline as enduring motifs throughout the text. It surveys the roots of midwifery, the beginnings of professional practice, the founding of educational institutions and professional organizations, and entry pathways into the profession. Woven throughout the text are such themes as the close link between midwives and the communities in which they live, their view of pregnancy and birth as normal life events, their efforts to promote health and prevent illness, and their dedication to being with women wherever they may be and in whatever health condition and circumstances they may be in. The text examines the threats to midwifery past and present, such as the increasing medicalization of childbearing care, midwiferyís lack of a common identity based on education and practice standards, the mix of legal recognition, and reimbursement issues for midwifery practice. Illustrations and historical photos depict the many facets of midwifery, and engaging stories provide cultural and spiritual content. This is a ìmust-haveî for all midwives, historians, professional and educational institutions, and all those who share a passion for the history of midwifery and women. Key Features: Encompasses the most authoritative and comprehensive information available about the history of midwifery in the United States Considers the strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities for midwifery Illustrated with historical photos and drawings Includes engaging stories filled with cultural and spiritual content, introductory quotes to each chapter, and plentiful chapter notes Written by two preeminent leaders in the field of midwifery |
| the history of midwifery: Midwives in History and Society Jean Towler, Joan Bramall, 2023-02-01 Originally published in 1986, this book examines the history of midwifery, concentrating on 19th and 20th Century Britain. It shows how the evolution of the midwife has been influenced by cultural waves which started in the Near East and Egypt in pre-classical times and slowly spread Northwards and Eastwards over Europe. The authors emphasize the effects of specialization and professionalization upon midwifery and also the influence of male authority and interest group politics. The evolution of the educated qualified midwife of the 20th Century is recorded, leading up to the ongoing debates about high technology birth vis-à-vis natural birth and home deliveries. |
| the history of midwifery: Nurse-midwifery Laura Elizabeth Ettinger, 2006 In a unique and detailed historical study, Nurse-Midwifery: The Birth of a New American Profession, Laura E. Ettinger fills a void with the first book-length documentation of the emergence of American nurse-midwifery. This occupation developed in the 1920s involving nurses who took advanced training in midwifery. In Nurse-Midwifery, Ettinger shows how nurse-midwives in New York City; eastern Kentucky; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and other places both rebelled against and served as agents of a nationwide professionalization of doctors and medicalization of childbirth. Nurse-Midwifery reveals the limitations that nurses, physicians, and nurse-midwives placed on the profession of nurse-midwifery from the outset because of the professional interests of nursing and medicine. The book argues that nurse-midwives challenged what scholars have called the male medical model of childbirth, but the cost of the compromises they made to survive was that nurse-midwifery did not become the kind of independent, autonomous profession it might have been. |
| the history of midwifery: Midwifery and Childbirth in America Judith Rooks, 1999-02-01 Having a baby is an elemental human experience—profound, even sacred to some women and their families. At the same time, it is a significant component of health care. The medical model of childbirth emphasizes the pathological potential of pregnancy and birth, while an alternative model championed by midwives focuses on the normalcy of pregnancy and its potential for health. Now available in paperback, this definitive account of the many forces that intersect over the issue of childbirth explains in a comprehensive and authoritative manner the conceptual and philosophical differences between these models. The author has brought together in a clear and readable fashion the myriad strands of history, culture, science, economics, and policy that have resulted in the current condition of maternity care in the United States. She describes the disparate backgrounds, training, and roles of certified nurse-midwives and lay or direct entry midwives, and explains the contributions of both groups. Rooks believes that maternity care and childbirth in America can, and should, be better than it is today, and offers steps to take in the direction. Author note:Judith Rooksis a nurse-midwife and epidemiologist with a long career in public health. She has taught in a school of nursing, a school of medicine, and a school of midwifery. The author of more than 50 scientific and professional papers, she is also past-president of the American College of Nurse-Midwives. She is an Associate of the Pacific Institute for Women's Health in Los Angeles. |
| the history of midwifery: The Art of Midwifery Hilary Marland, 2005-09-26 The Art of Midwifery is the first book to examine midwives' lives and work across Europe in the early modern period. Drawing on a vast range of archival material from England, Holland, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, the contributors show the diversity in midwives' practices, competence, socio-economic background and education, as well as their public function and image. The Art of Midwifery is an excellent resource for students of women's history, social history and medical history. |
| the history of midwifery: The Midwives Book Mrs. Jane Sharp, 1671 This work supplied English midwives and English women with a compendium of information for the Continent and from the author's own thirty years of experience. |
| the history of midwifery: A Social History of Maternity and Childbirth Tania McIntosh, 2013-06-19 People are fascinated by stories of childbirth, and the sources to document maternity in Britain in the twentieth century are rich and varied. This book puts the history of maternity in England into its wider social context, highlighting areas of change and continuity, and charting the development of pregnancy and birth as it emerged from the shadows and became central to social debate. A Social History of Maternity and Childbirth considers the significance of the regulation and training of midwives and doctors, exploring important aspects of maternity care including efforts to tackle maternal deaths, the move of birth from home to hospital, and the rise of consumer groups. Using oral histories and women’s memoirs, as well as local health records and contemporary reports and papers, this book explores the experiences of women and families, and includes the voices of women, midwives and doctors. Key themes are discussed throughout, including: the work and status of the midwife the place of birth pain relief ante- and post- natal care women’s pressure groups high-tech versus low-tech political pressures. At a time when the midwifery profession, and the wider structure of maternity care, is a matter for popular and political debate, this book is a timely contribution. It will be an invaluable read for all those interested in maternity care in England. |
| the history of midwifery: Delivered by Midwives Jenny M. Luke, 2018-10-04 Winner of the 2019 American Association for the History of Nursing Lavinia L. Dock Award for Exemplary Historical Research and Writing in a Book “Catchin’ babies” was merely one aspect of the broad role of African American midwives in the twentieth-century South. Yet, little has been written about the type of care they provided or how midwifery and maternity care evolved under the increasing presence of local and federal health care structures. Using evidence from nursing, medical, and public health journals of the era; primary sources from state and county departments of health; and personal accounts from varied practitioners, Delivered by Midwives: African American Midwifery in the Twentieth-Century South provides a new perspective on the childbirth experience of African American women and their maternity care providers. Author Jenny M. Luke moves beyond the usual racial dichotomies to expose a more complex shift in childbirth culture, revealing the changing expectations and agency of African American women in their rejection of a two-tier maternity care system and their demands to be part of an inclusive, desegregated society. Moreover, Luke illuminates valuable aspects of a maternity care model previously discarded in the name of progress. High maternal and infant mortality rates led to the passage of the Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Protection Act in 1921. This marked the first attempt by the federal government to improve the welfare of mothers and babies. Almost a century later, concern about maternal mortality and persistent racial disparities have forced a reassessment. Elements of the long-abandoned care model are being reincorporated into modern practice, answering current health care dilemmas by heeding lessons from the past. |
| the history of midwifery: Midwifery from the Tudors to the 21st Century Julia Allison, 2020-06-14 This book recounts the journey of English midwives over six centuries and their battle for survival as a discrete profession, caring safely for childbearing women. With a particular focus on sixteenth and twentieth century midwifery practice, it includes new research which provides evidence of the identity, social status, lives, families and practice of contemporary midwives, and argues that the excellent care given by ecclesiastically licensed midwives in Tudor England was not bettered until the twentieth century. Relying on a wide variety of archived and personally collected material, this history illuminates the lives, words, professional experiences and outcomes of midwives. It explores the place of women in society, the development of midwifery education and regulation, the seventeenth century arrival of the accoucheurs and the continuing drive by obstetricians to medicalise birth. A fascinating and compelling read, it highlights the politics and challenges that have shaped midwifery practice today and encourages readers to be confident in midwifery-led care and giving women choices in childbirth. It is an important read for all those interested in childbirth. |
| the history of midwifery: Varney's Midwifery Helen Varney, Jan M. Kriebs, Carolyn L. Gegor, 2004 Known as the “bible†of midwifery, this new edition of Varney's Midwifery has been extensively revised and updated to reflect the full scope of current midwifery practice in a balance of art and science, a blend of spirituality and evidence-based care, and a commitment to being with women. |
| the history of midwifery: Authority, Gender, and Midwifery in Early Modern Italy Jennifer F. Kosmin, 2020-08-31 Authority, Gender, and Midwifery in Early Modern Italy: Contested Deliveries explores attempts by church, state, and medical authorities to regulate and professionalize the practice of midwifery in Italy from the late sixteenth to the late eighteenth century. Medical writers in this period devoted countless pages to investigating the secrets of women’s sexuality and the processes of generation. By the eighteenth century, male practitioners in Britain and France were even successfully advancing careers as male midwives. Yet, female midwives continued to manage the vast majority of all early modern births. An examination of developments in Italy, where male practitioners never made successful inroads into childbirth, brings into focus the complex social, religious, and political contexts that shaped the management of reproduction in early modern Europe. Authority, Gender, and Midwifery in Early Modern Italy argues that new institutional spaces to care for pregnant women and educate midwives in Italy during the eighteenth century were not strictly medical developments but rather socio-political responses both to long standing concerns about honor, shame, and illegitimacy, and contemporary unease about population growth and productivity. In so doing, this book complicates our understanding of such sites, situating them within a longer genealogy of institutional spaces in Italy aimed at regulating sexual morality and protecting female honor. It will be of interest to scholars of the history of medicine, religious history, social history, and Early Modern Italy. |
| the history of midwifery: The Making of Man-midwifery Adrian Wilson, 1995 In England in the seventeenth century, childbirth was the province of women. The midwife ran the birth, helped by female gossips; men, including the doctors of the day, were excluded both from the delivery and from the subsequent month of lying-in. But in the eighteenth century there emerged a new practitioner: the man-midwife who acted in lieu of a midwife and delivered normal births. By the late eighteenth century, men-midwives had achieved a permanent place in the management of childbirth, especially in the most lucrative spheres of practice. Why did women desert the traditional midwife? How was it that a domain of female control and collective solidarity became instead a region of male medical practice? What had broken down the barrier that had formerly excluded the male practitioner from the management of birth? This confident and authoritative work explores and explains a remarkable transformation--a shift not just in medical practices but in gender relations. Exploring the sociocultural dimensions of childbirth, Wilson argues with great skill that it was not the desires of medical men but the choices of mothers that summoned man-midwifery into being. |
| the history of midwifery: African American Midwifery in the South Gertrude Jacinta FRASER, 2009-06-30 Starting at the turn of the century, most African American midwives in the South were gradually excluded from reproductive health care. Gertrude Fraser shows how physicians, public health personnel, and state legislators mounted a campaign ostensibly to improve maternal and infant health, especially in rural areas. They brought traditional midwives under the control of a supervisory body, and eventually eliminated them. In the writings and programs produced by these physicians and public health officials, Fraser finds a universe of ideas about race, gender, the relationship of medicine to society, and the status of the South in the national political and social economies. Fraser also studies this experience through dialogues of memory. She interviews members of a rural Virginia African American community that included not just retired midwives and their descendants, but anyone who lived through this transformation in medical care--especially the women who gave birth at home attended by a midwife. She compares these narrations to those in contemporary medical journals and public health materials, discovering contradictions and ambivalence: was the midwife a figure of shame or pride? How did one distance oneself from what was now considered superstitious or backward and at the same time acknowledge and show pride in the former unquestioned authority of these beliefs and practices? In an important contribution to African American studies and anthropology, African American Midwifery in the South brings new voices to the discourse on the hidden world of midwives and birthing. |
| the history of midwifery: Midwifery, Obstetrics and the Rise of Gynaecology Helen King, 2007-01-01 The Gynaeciorum libri, a compendium of ancient and contemporary texts on gynaecology, is the inspiration for this intensive exploration of the origins of a subfield of medicine. Focusing on its readers in the period from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century, when men and women were in competition for control over childbirth, Helen King sheds new light on how the claim of female difference was shaped by specific social and cultural conditions. |
| the history of midwifery: A Midwife's Tale Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, 2010-12-22 PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • Drawing on the diaries of one woman in eighteenth-century Maine, A truly talented historian unravels the fascinating life of a community that is so foreign, and yet so similar to our own (The New York Times Book Review). Between 1785 and 1812 a midwife and healer named Martha Ballard kept a diary that recorded her arduous work (in 27 years she attended 816 births) as well as her domestic life in Hallowell, Maine. On the basis of that diary, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich gives us an intimate and densely imagined portrait, not only of the industrious and reticent Martha Ballard but of her society. At once lively and impeccably scholarly, A Midwife's Tale is a triumph of history on a human scale. |
| the history of midwifery: Scottish Midwives Lindsay Reid, 2000 There have always been midwives in Scotland although their history has been largely undocumented. The Midwives (Scotland) Act was passed in 1915 and regularised midwifery training and practice. Before this, although some women went through a form of training in midwifery, many women came to the profession by chance or through financial necessity. After the Act, the howdies of old gradually gave way to midwives, enrolled by the new Central Midwives' Board for Scotland. In this oral history, individuals remember an incident, a decade, a career, a lifetime, tracing the development of midwifery in Scotland in the twentieth century from their very own personal perspectives. |
| the history of midwifery: The Midwife's Tale Sam Thomas, 2013-01-08 In the tradition of Arianna Franklin and C. J. Sansom comes Samuel Thomas's remarkable debut, The Midwife's Tale It is 1644, and Parliament's armies have risen against the King and laid siege to the city of York. Even as the city suffers at the rebels' hands, midwife Bridget Hodgson becomes embroiled in a different sort of rebellion. One of Bridget's friends, Esther Cooper, has been convicted of murdering her husband and sentenced to be burnt alive. Convinced that her friend is innocent, Bridget sets out to find the real killer. Bridget joins forces with Martha Hawkins, a servant who's far more skilled with a knife than any respectable woman ought to be. To save Esther from the stake, they must dodge rebel artillery, confront a murderous figure from Martha's past, and capture a brutal killer who will stop at nothing to cover his tracks. The investigation takes Bridget and Martha from the homes of the city's most powerful families to the alleyways of its poorest neighborhoods. As they delve into the life of Esther's murdered husband, they discover that his ostentatious Puritanism hid a deeply sinister secret life, and that far too often tyranny and treason go hand in hand. |
| the history of midwifery: Freestanding Birth Centers Linda J Cole, DNP, RN, CNM, Melissa D Avery, PhD, RN, CNM, FACNM, FAAN, 2017-05-11 Written for graduate students and professionals in the fields of midwifery, women’s health, and public health, this book explores the freestanding birth center model in the United States from its conception by pioneering midwives and others in the early 1970s to the present day. Compared to the hospital-based birth model, the freestanding birth center offers a well-documented, healthier, more cost-effective, and more humane way to care for women and newborns, consistent with the goals of the Affordable Care Act. This rapidly expanding model of care has many positive implications for high-quality, individualized care and birth outcomes across the United States. Written by U.S. leaders in midwifery, Freestanding Birth Centers: Innovation, Evidence, Optimal Outcomes offers a comprehensive guide to the evolving role of birth centers, clinical and cost outcomes, regulatory and legal issues, provider and accreditation issues, and the future of the birth center model. Woven throughout the text are descriptions of exemplar birth centers representing diverse geographical, business, and service models. These cases illustrate the possibilities for expansion and replication of this model of care. Key Features Provides a thorough history of the birth center movement from its inception through future expansion of the model Serves as an essential resource with up-to-date evidence on clinical and cost outcomes Includes case studies linking the unique service focus of individual birth centers to the associated sections of the book Provides practical and comprehensive coverage of all issues involved in running a U.S. birth center |
| the history of midwifery: Childbirth, Midwifery and Concepts of Time Christine McCourt, 2009 All cultures are concerned with the business of childbirth, so much so that it can never be described as a purely physiological or even psychological event. This volume draws together work from a range of anthropologists and midwives who have found anthropological approaches useful in their work. Using case studies from a variety of cultural settings, the writers explore the centrality of the way time is conceptualized, marked and measured to the ways of perceiving and managing childbirth: how women, midwives and other birth attendants are affected by issues of power and control, but also actively attempt to change established forms of thinking and practice. The stories are engaging as well as critical and invite the reader to think afresh about time, and about reproduction. |
| the history of midwifery: From Midwives to Medicine Deborah Kuhn McGregor, 1998 In this social history of the development of modern gynecology in the mid-19th century, McGregor (history, women's studies, U. of Illinois-Springfield) reflects the attitudes and practices of the day through the controversial career of J. Marion Sims, the father of gynecology. Includes illustrations of early medical practitioners and establishments (in particular, New York's Woman's Hospital). Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR |
| the history of midwifery: Coming Home Wendy Kline, 2019 Coming Home tells the story of how a significant number of parents in postwar America opted out of the standardized medicated hospital birth and recast home birth as a legitimate and desirable choice. |
| the history of midwifery: The King's Midwife Nina Rattner Gelbart, 2023-04-28 This unorthodox biography explores the life of an extraordinary Enlightenment woman who, by sheer force of character, parlayed a skill in midwifery into a national institution. In 1759, in an effort to end infant mortality, Louis XV commissioned Madame Angélique Marguerite Le Boursier du Coudray to travel throughout France teaching the art of childbirth to illiterate peasant women. For the next thirty years, this royal emissary taught in nearly forty cities and reached an estimated ten thousand students. She wrote a textbook and invented a life-sized obstetrical mannequin for her demonstrations. She contributed significantly to France's demographic upswing after 1760. Who was the woman, both the private self and the pseudonymous public celebrity? Nina Rattner Gelbart reconstructs Madame du Coudray's astonishing mission through extensive research in the hundreds of letters by, to, and about her in provincial archives throughout France. Tracing her subject's footsteps around the country, Gelbart chronicles du Coudray's battles with finance ministers, village matrons, local administrators, and recalcitrant physicians, her rises in power and falls from grace, and her death at the height of the Reign of Terror. At a deeper level, Gelbart recaptures du Coudray's interior journey as well, by questioning and dismantling the neat paper trail that the great midwife so carefully left behind. Delightfully written, this tale of a fascinating life at the end of the French Old Regime sheds new light on the histories of medicine, gender, society, politics, and culture. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1998. This unorthodox biography explores the life of an extraordinary Enlightenment woman who, by sheer force of character, parlayed a skill in midwifery into a national institution. In 1759, in an effort to end infant mortality, Louis XV commissioned Madame An |
| the history of midwifery: Oxford Handbook of Midwifery Sue Battersby, Maggie Evans, Beverley Marsh, Angela Walker, 2011-07-28 This unique and bestselling handbook provides midwives with everything they need for successful practice. It contains concise, practical and expert guidance on all aspects of the midwife's role, from pre-conceptual advice to the final post-natal examination of the mother and baby. |
| the history of midwifery: The Midwife's Tale Nicky Leap, Billie Hunter, 2013-10-17 Mothers and midwives reveal the wonders and difficulties of early twentieth century childbirth in this informative and insightful healthcare history. Before the foundation of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) in 1948, expectant mothers relied on midwives to help them through childbirth. Based on interviews conducted with dozens and mothers and retired midwives over several years, Billie Hunter and Nicky Leap’s The Midwife’s Tale shares the stories of these women in their own words, shedding light on their experiences and on the realities of childbirth in the first half of the twentieth century. Intriguing, poignant, and sometimes humorous, this oral history covers the experiences of women from the 1910s through the 1950s including accounts of the difficulties of rearing large families in poverty-stricken environments and the lack of information about contraception and abortion—even as midwifery changed from an unqualified “handywoman” skill to an actual profession. |
| the history of midwifery: Japanese American Midwives Susan L. Smith, 2010-10-01 In the late nineteenth century, Japan's modernizing quest for empire transformed midwifery into a new woman's profession. With the rise of Japanese immigration to the United States, Japanese midwives (sanba) served as cultural brokers as well as birth attendants for Issei women. They actively participated in the creation of Japanese American community and culture as preservers of Japanese birthing customs and agents of cultural change. Japanese American Midwives reveals the dynamic relationship between this welfare state and the history of women and health. Susan L. Smith blends midwives' individual stories with astute analysis to demonstrate the impossibility of clearly separating domestic policy from foreign policy, public health from racial politics, medical care from women's caregiving, and the history of women and health from national and international politics. By setting the history of Japanese American midwives in this larger context, Smith reveals little-known ethnic, racial, and regional aspects of women's history and the history of medicine. |
| the history of midwifery: Spiritual Midwifery Ina May Gaskin, 1990 The classic book on home birth. Stories of the experiences of parents and midwives during the birth process plus a technical manual for midwives, nurses, and doctors. Includes information on prenatal care and nutrition, labor, delivery techniques, care of the new baby, and breast-feeding. |
| the history of midwifery: Midwifery and Medicine in Early Modern France Wendy Perkins, 1996 An account of the work, writings and career of Louise Bourgeois, who had a flourishing midwifery practice at the French royal court at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Bourgeois was notable as a successful and articulate woman practitioner and author. Perkins, who is an expert on French literature, has integrated into her account recent work of social historians on medicine: on the medical market place, on patient-doctor relations, especially between women and medical practitioners, and on the social construction of the body. |
| the history of midwifery: Birth Settings in America National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Health and Medicine Division, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, Board on Children, Youth, and Families, Committee on Assessing Health Outcomes by Birth Settings, 2020-05-01 The delivery of high quality and equitable care for both mothers and newborns is complex and requires efforts across many sectors. The United States spends more on childbirth than any other country in the world, yet outcomes are worse than other high-resource countries, and even worse for Black and Native American women. There are a variety of factors that influence childbirth, including social determinants such as income, educational levels, access to care, financing, transportation, structural racism and geographic variability in birth settings. It is important to reevaluate the United States' approach to maternal and newborn care through the lens of these factors across multiple disciplines. Birth Settings in America: Outcomes, Quality, Access, and Choice reviews and evaluates maternal and newborn care in the United States, the epidemiology of social and clinical risks in pregnancy and childbirth, birth settings research, and access to and choice of birth settings. |
| the history of midwifery: Becoming a Midwife Sandi Doughton, 2020-12-01 A revealing guide to a career as a midwife written by award-winning health reporter Sandi Doughton and based on the real-life experiences of the chief of the midwifery practice group at the University of Washington—required reading for anyone pursuing a path to this life-changing profession. Becoming a Midwife takes you behind the scenes to find out what it’s really like, and what it really takes, to become a midwife. Midwives are medical professionals who provide care for childbearing women on their birthing journey. It is a growing career that combines compassion and emotional intelligence with nursing and healthcare. Expert midwife Mary Lou Kopas, MN, CNM, specializes in healthy pregnancy and birth. As a veteran of the field, she has helped countless women on the path to labor by delivering their babies and following up with breastfeeding support, newborn care, and insight into the many psycho-social challenges women face in the transition to motherhood. Gain professional wisdom as acclaimed health reporter Sandi Doughton shadows Kopas at work, telling the story of her professional path. Learn the ins and outs of this dynamic job, helping soon-to-be mothers bring new life into the world. |
| the history of midwifery: The Court Midwife Justine Siegemund, 2007-11-01 First published in 1690, The Court Midwife made Justine Siegemund (1636-1705) the spokesperson for the art of midwifery at a time when most obstetrical texts were written by men. More than a technical manual, The Court Midwife contains descriptions of obstetric techniques of midwifery and its attendant social pressures. Siegemund's visibility as a writer, midwife, and proponent of an incipient professionalism accorded her a status virtually unknown to German women in the seventeenth century. Translated here into English for the first time, The Court Midwife contains riveting birthing scenes, sworn testimonials by former patients, and a brief autobiography. |
| the history of midwifery: Midwifery and the Medicalization of Childbirth Edwin R. Van Teijlingen, 2004 This book provides an introduction to the sociological study of midwifery. The readings have been selected to highlight the interplay between midwifery and medicine, reflecting the medicalization of childbirth. It highlights the major themes in both a historical and a current context, as well as western and non-western societies. Two major themes underlie the organization of this book: that the conception of midwifery must be broadened to encompass a sociological perspective; and that the ongoing trend toward the medicalization of midwifery is crucial to an understanding of the historical, current, and future status of midwifery. By medicalization of childbirth and midwifery the author mean the increasing tendency for women to prefer a hospital delivery to a home delivery, the increasing trend toward the use of technology and clinical intervention in childbirth, and the determination of medical practitioners to confine the role played by midwives in pregnancy and childbirth, if any, to a purely subordinate one. |
| the history of midwifery: Outlawed Anna North, 2021-01-05 A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK * INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * BELLETRIST BOOK CLUB PICK * INDIE NEXT SELECTION * LIBRARY READS SELECTION * AMAZON EDITORS' CHOICE * WASHINGTON POST BEST OF THE YEAR The terrifying, wise, tender, and thrilling (R.O. Kwon) adventure story of a fugitive girl, a mysterious gang of robbers, and their dangerous mission to transform the Wild West. In the year of our Lord 1894, I became an outlaw. The day of her wedding, 17 year old Ada's life looks good; she loves her husband, and she loves working as an apprentice to her mother, a respected midwife. But after a year of marriage and no pregnancy, in a town where barren women are routinely hanged as witches, her survival depends on leaving behind everything she knows. She joins up with the notorious Hole in the Wall Gang, a band of outlaws led by a preacher-turned-robber known to all as the Kid. Charismatic, grandiose, and mercurial, the Kid is determined to create a safe haven for outcast women. But to make this dream a reality, the Gang hatches a treacherous plan that may get them all killed. And Ada must decide whether she's willing to risk her life for the possibility of a new kind of future for them all. Featuring an irresistibly no-nonsense, courageous, and determined heroine, Outlawed dusts off the myth of the old West and reignites the glimmering promise of the frontier with an entirely new set of feminist stakes. Anna North has crafted a pulse-racing, page-turning saga about the search for hope in the wake of death, and for truth in a climate of small-mindedness and fear. |
| the history of midwifery: Colonial Modernities Ambalika Guha, 2017-07-20 The subject of medicalisation of childbirth in colonial India has so far been identified with three major themes: the attempt to reform or ‘sanitise’ the site of birthing practices, establishing lying-in hospitals and replacing traditional birth attendants with trained midwives and qualified female doctors. This book, part of the series The Social History of Health and Medicine in South Asia, looks at the interactions between childbirth and midwifery practices and colonial modernities. Taking eastern India as a case study and related research from other areas, with hard empirical data from local government bodies, municipal corporations and district boards, it goes beyond the conventional narrative to show how the late nineteenth-century initiatives to reform birthing practices were essentially a modernist response of the western-educated colonised middle class to the colonial critique of Indian sociocultural codes. It provides a perceptive historical analysis of how institutionalisation of midwifery was shaped by the debates on the women’s question, nationalism and colonial public health policies, all intersecting in the interwar years. The study traces the beginning of medicalisation of childbirth, the professionalisation of obstetrics, the agency of male doctors, inclusion of midwifery as an academic subject in medical colleges and consequences of maternal care and infant welfare. This book will greatly interest scholars and researchers in history, social medicine, public policy, gender studies and South Asian studies. |
| the history of midwifery: Postnatal Care Sheena Byrom, Grace Edwards, Debra Bick, 2009-12-14 Essential Midwifery Practice: Postnatal Care summarises the important developments in postnatal care in relation to recent policy and guidance and relates the recommendations to midwifery practice in a clear and easily understood manner. With contributions from experts in the field, this practical text provides a resource for postnatal service provision in both hospital and community, offering a framework to assist midwives understand the background to care. With a focus on a woman and family centred philosophy, and community engagement models of care, this text explores issues including clinical care within the postnatal period, transition into parenthood, empowering parents, morbidity and postnatal care, the healthy newborn, and engaging vulnerable women and families. Essential Midwifery Practice: Postnatal Care forms part of a series of books that succinctly address the needs of practising midwives on a number of contemporary issues. Includes up to date information on recent policy, including NICE guidelines Written by respected experts in the field Focused on women and family centered care For both hospital and community midwives |
| the history of midwifery: Mainstreaming Midwives Robbie Davis-Floyd, Christine Barbara Johnson, 2012-12-06 Providing insights into midwifery, a team of reputable contributors describe the development of nurse- and direct-entry midwifery in the United States, including the creation of two new direct-entry certifications, the Certified Midwife and the Certified Professional Midwife, and examine the history, purposes, complexities, and the political strife that has characterized the evolution of midwifery in America. Including detailed case studies, the book looks at the efforts of direct-entry midwives to achieve legalization and licensure in seven states: New York, Florida, Michigan, Iowa, Virginia, Colorado, and Massachusetts with varying degrees of success. |
| the history of midwifery: Call The Midwife Jennifer Worth, 2009-05-14 A fascinating slice of social history - Jennifer Worth's tales of being a midwife in 1950s London, now a major BBC TV series. Jennifer Worth came from a sheltered background when she became a midwife in the Docklands in the 1950s. The conditions in which many women gave birth just half a century ago were horrifying, not only because of their grimly impoverished surroundings, but also because of what they were expected to endure. But while Jennifer witnessed brutality and tragedy, she also met with amazing kindness and understanding, tempered by a great deal of Cockney humour. She also earned the confidences of some whose lives were truly stranger, more poignant and more terrifying than could ever be recounted in fiction. Attached to an order of nuns who had been working in the slums since the 1870s, Jennifer tells the story not only of the women she treated, but also of the community of nuns (including one who was accused of stealing jewels from Hatton Garden) and the camaraderie of the midwives with whom she trained. Funny, disturbing and incredibly moving, Jennifer's stories bring to life the colourful world of the East End in the 1950s. |
| the history of midwifery: Midwifery in China Ngai Fen Cheung, Rosemary Mander, 2018-06-27 The first book to present the history, ideas, life and works of Chinese midwives and birth attendants, this volume seeks to encapsulate and explain the changing ideas about the practice of midwifery in China. Using participant observations and interviews, it examines each phase of the development of midwifery in depth. Providing a systematic study of the existing literature and contemporary national health policies, it analyses the factors contributing to the current demise of midwifery in China, such as the absence of national regulation, high standards of education and national midwives’ associations. Furthermore, it argues that China’s national statistics in the past six decades demonstrate clear evidence that minimising maternal mortality rates will only happen through wider availability of services, rather than through obstetric technology or facility based care. Ultimately, therefore this book supports the view that humanity and midwifery will survive to overcome domination by both technology and market forces and that economic growth and medical technology alone will not be sufficient in providing effective healthcare. This book is an indispensable resource for the study of Chinese midwifery, both in theory and in practice. As such it will be useful to students and scholars of Midwifery, Women’s Health, Sociology and culture and society in China. |
| the history of midwifery: Philosophies and Theories for Advanced Nursing Practice Janie B. Butts, Karen L. Rich, 2013-12-26 Philosophies and Theories for Advanced Nursing Practice, Second Edition was developed as an essential resource for advance practice students in master’s and doctoral programs. This text is appropriate for students needing an introductory understanding of philosophy and how a theory is constructed as well as students and nurses who understand theory at an advanced level. The Second Edition discusses the AACN DNP essentials which is critical for DNP students as well as PhD students who need a better understanding of the DNP-educated nurse’s role. Philosophies and Theories for Advanced Nursing Practice, Second Edition covers a wide variety of theories in addition to nursing theories. Coverage of non-nursing related theory is beneficial to nurses because of the growing national emphasis on collaborative, interdisciplinary patient care. The text includes diagrams, tables, and discussion questions to help students understand and reinforce core content. |
| the history of midwifery: Midwifery Linda V. Walsh, 2001 This new comprehensive text recognises the roleof the midwife or clinician practisng using a midwifery model of care as a primary provider for healthy pregnant women. The woman is the central figure in the assessment of her own health needs and the determination of the care processes that will best meet those needs. Stresses throughout, the role of the midwife is to advocate for the woman while creating a climate of care the recognises and values the healthy aspects of pregnancy. When deviation from the normal occur, the reader is led through a process that emphasises consultation, collaboration, and referral to the professionals who are most appropriately prepared to meet the women¹s needs. Current research is incorporated throughout to prepare the reader for maintaining standards of care by evidence-based practice. Current research incorporated throughout Emphasises consultation and collaboration when referring patients with specific needs deviating from the norm |
| the history of midwifery: Witches, Midwives, and Nurses Barbara Ehrenreich, Deirdre English, 1973 This book looks at the history of medical practice, argues that the suppression of female healers began with the European witch hunts, and describes the sexism of the current medical establishment. |
The Origins of Midwifery - International Confederation of Midwives
A brief glimpse into the history of our profession: The practice of midwifery can be traced back to the palaeolithic era (40,000 B.C.), where pregnancy and childbirth required women to give birth …
The History of Midwifery - how far we've come - RCM
7 Oct 2020 · Starting back in ancient Egypt and Rome, the animation journeys to the 1500s when the first midwifery manuals were produced, through the rise of professional medicine and on to …
Midwifery | Pregnancy, Birth & Postpartum Support | Britannica
Midwifery, care of women in pregnancy, childbirth (parturition), and the postpartum period that often also includes care of the newborn. Midwifery is as old as childbearing. Indeed, midwives …
Midwifery - Wikipedia
Midwifery is the health science and health profession that deals with pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period (including care of the newborn), [1] in addition to the sexual and reproductive …
The start of life: a history of obstetrics - Oxford Academic
1 May 2002 · Obstetric intervention originally consisted of extraction of the baby, usually by the breech, to save the mother’s life in obstructed labour. Forceps, introduced in the 17th century, …
Nursing and Midwifery in the History of the World Health …
12 Sep 2017 · This report documents the progress made by using chronological and thematic approaches to chart the key historical timelines and events that have shaped the nursing and …
The midwife throughout history - ScienceDirect
1 Nov 1982 · This paper traces the role of the midwife in history from Biblical times to the present. It describes how a profession that was traditionally considered “women's business” was gradually …
Home | Birth Through History
Historians, archivists, midwives and doctors are exploring the history of pregnancy and childbirth, from the earliest printed texts on midwifery in Europe to the present day.
Midwifery - Renaissance and Reformation - Oxford Bibliographies
23 Aug 2017 · Foundational survey of the rise of male midwifery across much of Europe over the 17th and 18th centuries. Primarily an insightful narrative social and cultural history, with detailed …
Midwifery in Britain in the Twentieth Century
Midwifery in Britain in the Twentieth Century. Midwifery became legally recognised in Britain in 1902 with the first Midwives Act. Despite this, there continued to be a large proportion of women who …
The Origins of Midwifery - International Confederation of Midwives
A brief glimpse into the history of our profession: The practice of midwifery can be traced back to the palaeolithic era (40,000 B.C.), where pregnancy and childbirth required women to give birth in challenging and often life-threatening environments.
The History of Midwifery - how far we've come - RCM
7 Oct 2020 · Starting back in ancient Egypt and Rome, the animation journeys to the 1500s when the first midwifery manuals were produced, through the rise of professional medicine and on to the maternity response to the current global pandemic, stopping at key point – including the start of the Royal College of Midwives – on the way.
Midwifery | Pregnancy, Birth & Postpartum Support | Britannica
Midwifery, care of women in pregnancy, childbirth (parturition), and the postpartum period that often also includes care of the newborn. Midwifery is as old as childbearing. Indeed, midwives historically were women who were mothers themselves and who became midwives when they attended the births of
Midwifery - Wikipedia
Midwifery is the health science and health profession that deals with pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period (including care of the newborn), [1] in addition to the sexual and reproductive health of women throughout their lives. [2]
The start of life: a history of obstetrics - Oxford Academic
1 May 2002 · Obstetric intervention originally consisted of extraction of the baby, usually by the breech, to save the mother’s life in obstructed labour. Forceps, introduced in the 17th century, were later refined by men-midwives like William Smellie.
Nursing and Midwifery in the History of the World Health …
12 Sep 2017 · This report documents the progress made by using chronological and thematic approaches to chart the key historical timelines and events that have shaped the nursing and midwifery policy discourse through the decades.
The midwife throughout history - ScienceDirect
1 Nov 1982 · This paper traces the role of the midwife in history from Biblical times to the present. It describes how a profession that was traditionally considered “women's business” was gradually taken over predominantly by male physicians.
Home | Birth Through History
Historians, archivists, midwives and doctors are exploring the history of pregnancy and childbirth, from the earliest printed texts on midwifery in Europe to the present day.
Midwifery - Renaissance and Reformation - Oxford Bibliographies
23 Aug 2017 · Foundational survey of the rise of male midwifery across much of Europe over the 17th and 18th centuries. Primarily an insightful narrative social and cultural history, with detailed descriptions of individual practitioners and recorded cases. Sensitive to differences in practice between confessional groups.
Midwifery in Britain in the Twentieth Century
Midwifery in Britain in the Twentieth Century. Midwifery became legally recognised in Britain in 1902 with the first Midwives Act. Despite this, there continued to be a large proportion of women who were supported by midwives who had not been formally trained.
