Adrian Davies
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198208204
- eISBN:
- 9780191677953
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208204.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, History of Religion
The early Quakers denounced the clergy and social élite but how did that affect Friends' relationships with others? Drawing upon the insights of sociologists and ...
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The early Quakers denounced the clergy and social élite but how did that affect Friends' relationships with others? Drawing upon the insights of sociologists and anthropologists, this study sets out to discover the social consequences of religious belief. Why did the sect appoint its own midwives to attend Quaker women during confinement? Was animosity to Quakerism so great that Friends were excluded from involvement in parish life? And to what extent were the remarkably high literacy rates of Quakers attributable to the Quaker faith or wider social forces? Using a wide range of primary source material, this study demonstrates that Quakers were not the marginal and isolated people that contemporaries and historians often portrayed. Indeed the sect had a profound impact not only upon members, but more widely by encouraging a greater tolerance of diversity in early modern society.Less
The early Quakers denounced the clergy and social élite but how did that affect Friends' relationships with others? Drawing upon the insights of sociologists and anthropologists, this study sets out to discover the social consequences of religious belief. Why did the sect appoint its own midwives to attend Quaker women during confinement? Was animosity to Quakerism so great that Friends were excluded from involvement in parish life? And to what extent were the remarkably high literacy rates of Quakers attributable to the Quaker faith or wider social forces? Using a wide range of primary source material, this study demonstrates that Quakers were not the marginal and isolated people that contemporaries and historians often portrayed. Indeed the sect had a profound impact not only upon members, but more widely by encouraging a greater tolerance of diversity in early modern society.
David Sedley
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199267033
- eISBN:
- 9780191601828
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199267030.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy
Plato’s Theaetetus is thought to have been written after his main middle-period dialogues, in which he expounded his celebrated metaphysical doctrine of Forms. Yet, it is an open-ended Socratic ...
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Plato’s Theaetetus is thought to have been written after his main middle-period dialogues, in which he expounded his celebrated metaphysical doctrine of Forms. Yet, it is an open-ended Socratic dialogue and investigates the question ‘What is knowledge?’ without positive result, and with an unexpected restraint about invoking the metaphysical theory. Why? This book develops a new solution to the old question. Plato wants to demonstrate the continuity of his mature work with that of his master Socrates and does so by invoking the now famous image, unique to this dialogue, of Socrates as the barren midwife of others’ brainchildren. The message is that Socrates, although not himself a Platonist, was the midwife of Platonism. This is brought out by portraying a Socrates who, rather than Plato’s current spokesman, is a throwback to the semi-historical figure immortalized in the early dialogues. We see this Socrates, in the course of his characteristic dialectical investigations, pointing us to recognizably Platonic solutions, but himself unable to articulate them that way because of his lack of a Platonic metaphysics. In addition to linking Plato’s Socratic past to his Platonic present, the same device also points forward to Plato’s future work in such dialogues as Sophist and Timaeus.Less
Plato’s Theaetetus is thought to have been written after his main middle-period dialogues, in which he expounded his celebrated metaphysical doctrine of Forms. Yet, it is an open-ended Socratic dialogue and investigates the question ‘What is knowledge?’ without positive result, and with an unexpected restraint about invoking the metaphysical theory. Why? This book develops a new solution to the old question. Plato wants to demonstrate the continuity of his mature work with that of his master Socrates and does so by invoking the now famous image, unique to this dialogue, of Socrates as the barren midwife of others’ brainchildren. The message is that Socrates, although not himself a Platonist, was the midwife of Platonism. This is brought out by portraying a Socrates who, rather than Plato’s current spokesman, is a throwback to the semi-historical figure immortalized in the early dialogues. We see this Socrates, in the course of his characteristic dialectical investigations, pointing us to recognizably Platonic solutions, but himself unable to articulate them that way because of his lack of a Platonic metaphysics. In addition to linking Plato’s Socratic past to his Platonic present, the same device also points forward to Plato’s future work in such dialogues as Sophist and Timaeus.
Amy Nelson Burnett
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195305760
- eISBN:
- 9780199784912
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195305760.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
The pastor’s pedagogical role dominated in all aspects of Reformed pastoral care: administering the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, visiting the sick, and preaching at funerals. Basel ...
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The pastor’s pedagogical role dominated in all aspects of Reformed pastoral care: administering the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, visiting the sick, and preaching at funerals. Basel retained certain medieval practices, such as the acceptance of godparents and sickbed visitation with communion, although it modified them in accordance with evangelical doctrine. Other practices, such as emergency baptism by midwives, were gradually eliminated as Basel moved into greater conformity with other Reformed churches. Basel’s pastors shared the responsibility for church discipline with lay officials. Although complaints about individual parishioners persist, visitation reports from the early 17th century give a positive picture of religious belief and practice in Basel’s rural parishes and the development of a Reformed religious culture.Less
The pastor’s pedagogical role dominated in all aspects of Reformed pastoral care: administering the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, visiting the sick, and preaching at funerals. Basel retained certain medieval practices, such as the acceptance of godparents and sickbed visitation with communion, although it modified them in accordance with evangelical doctrine. Other practices, such as emergency baptism by midwives, were gradually eliminated as Basel moved into greater conformity with other Reformed churches. Basel’s pastors shared the responsibility for church discipline with lay officials. Although complaints about individual parishioners persist, visitation reports from the early 17th century give a positive picture of religious belief and practice in Basel’s rural parishes and the development of a Reformed religious culture.
Cynthia Grant Tucker
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195390209
- eISBN:
- 9780199866670
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195390209.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
For Etta's daughter Dorothea Dix Eliot (1871‐1957), who marries her father's associate pastor, Earl Morse Wilbur (1866‐1956), in 1898, a major challenge is teaching her husband to stay in tune with ...
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For Etta's daughter Dorothea Dix Eliot (1871‐1957), who marries her father's associate pastor, Earl Morse Wilbur (1866‐1956), in 1898, a major challenge is teaching her husband to stay in tune with his family's needs and the politics of his profession. Taken first to a small, stingy parish in Meadville, PA, and then to Berkeley, CA, where Earl tries to run a new Pacific Unitarian School for the Ministry—today's Starr King—with almost no budget, Dodie must live with the poverty Etta had only imagined. More protective of her inherited caste because of their insufficiency, she lectures Earl on how to keep low‐paid domestics busy and humble. After struggling with infertility before a daughter is born, her dependency on a lower‐class midwife is further mortification. Later, the tragic death of her college‐age son dislodges her faith, and she dies a confessed agnostic.Less
For Etta's daughter Dorothea Dix Eliot (1871‐1957), who marries her father's associate pastor, Earl Morse Wilbur (1866‐1956), in 1898, a major challenge is teaching her husband to stay in tune with his family's needs and the politics of his profession. Taken first to a small, stingy parish in Meadville, PA, and then to Berkeley, CA, where Earl tries to run a new Pacific Unitarian School for the Ministry—today's Starr King—with almost no budget, Dodie must live with the poverty Etta had only imagined. More protective of her inherited caste because of their insufficiency, she lectures Earl on how to keep low‐paid domestics busy and humble. After struggling with infertility before a daughter is born, her dependency on a lower‐class midwife is further mortification. Later, the tragic death of her college‐age son dislodges her faith, and she dies a confessed agnostic.
Eleanor Hubbard
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199609345
- eISBN:
- 9780191739088
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199609345.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter deals with the work that early modern London wives and widows performed for money. It argues that restrictions on women's work resulted from economic concerns, not sexual anxieties about ...
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This chapter deals with the work that early modern London wives and widows performed for money. It argues that restrictions on women's work resulted from economic concerns, not sexual anxieties about working women's mobility, contact with the public, and independence. Instead, hostility to female competition kept women out of most occupations. Under these circumstances, women worked as craftswomen, marketwomen, hucksters, fishwives, nurses, midwives, charwomen, laundresses, starchers, the keepers of victualling houses, alehouses, inns, and chandler's shops, and more – often very public kinds of work. They took pride in their contributions to household economies, although the earnings they received in the over‐crowded female labor sector were always low. Even within these marginal occupations, they risked being accused of earning private gains that injured the common good. The chapter concludes by comparing women's work opportunities ca. 1600 to the situations in medieval and eighteenth‐century London.Less
This chapter deals with the work that early modern London wives and widows performed for money. It argues that restrictions on women's work resulted from economic concerns, not sexual anxieties about working women's mobility, contact with the public, and independence. Instead, hostility to female competition kept women out of most occupations. Under these circumstances, women worked as craftswomen, marketwomen, hucksters, fishwives, nurses, midwives, charwomen, laundresses, starchers, the keepers of victualling houses, alehouses, inns, and chandler's shops, and more – often very public kinds of work. They took pride in their contributions to household economies, although the earnings they received in the over‐crowded female labor sector were always low. Even within these marginal occupations, they risked being accused of earning private gains that injured the common good. The chapter concludes by comparing women's work opportunities ca. 1600 to the situations in medieval and eighteenth‐century London.
Heather Bell
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207498
- eISBN:
- 9780191677694
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207498.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Training Sudanese midwives and supervising all midwifery practice constituted a distinctive enterprise for the Sudan medical service. The Midwifery Training School, opened in Omdurman in 1921, ...
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Training Sudanese midwives and supervising all midwifery practice constituted a distinctive enterprise for the Sudan medical service. The Midwifery Training School, opened in Omdurman in 1921, recognized practitioners of traditional medicine as agents who could be reformed: it sought to create a class of modern, trained Sudanese midwives, out of, and in rivalry to, an entrenched class of traditional midwives known as dayas. Such a transformation required constant and explicit engagement with Sudanese people, and their cultural norms about gender roles and intimate practices such as childbirth and female circumcision. This chapter argues that the interaction between traditional and Western medicine, and between Sudanese and British cultures engendered by midwifery training and practice in the colonial context, was highly complex and constantly being negotiated. It shows that hierarchies of gender, race, occupation, and class disciplined the medical service's employment of non-European personnel. In addressing the government's handling of the controversial matter of female circumcision, the chapter also provides evidence of the rigid boundary sometimes drawn between medicine and politics in Sudan.Less
Training Sudanese midwives and supervising all midwifery practice constituted a distinctive enterprise for the Sudan medical service. The Midwifery Training School, opened in Omdurman in 1921, recognized practitioners of traditional medicine as agents who could be reformed: it sought to create a class of modern, trained Sudanese midwives, out of, and in rivalry to, an entrenched class of traditional midwives known as dayas. Such a transformation required constant and explicit engagement with Sudanese people, and their cultural norms about gender roles and intimate practices such as childbirth and female circumcision. This chapter argues that the interaction between traditional and Western medicine, and between Sudanese and British cultures engendered by midwifery training and practice in the colonial context, was highly complex and constantly being negotiated. It shows that hierarchies of gender, race, occupation, and class disciplined the medical service's employment of non-European personnel. In addressing the government's handling of the controversial matter of female circumcision, the chapter also provides evidence of the rigid boundary sometimes drawn between medicine and politics in Sudan.
Robert Woods and Chris Galley
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781781381410
- eISBN:
- 9781781382158
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781381410.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
How did midwives deliver women in the past? What was their understanding of anatomy and physiology? How did they cope with unnatural presentations, haemorrhage, miscarriage and stillbirths, ...
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How did midwives deliver women in the past? What was their understanding of anatomy and physiology? How did they cope with unnatural presentations, haemorrhage, miscarriage and stillbirths, constipation? Were lives being prolonged and risks diminished? Midwifery case notes offer a considerable source of evidence, which, when used with care and imagination, help to tackle these questions. This book demonstrates this in a fascinating way by analysing the work of two well-known midwives.Less
How did midwives deliver women in the past? What was their understanding of anatomy and physiology? How did they cope with unnatural presentations, haemorrhage, miscarriage and stillbirths, constipation? Were lives being prolonged and risks diminished? Midwifery case notes offer a considerable source of evidence, which, when used with care and imagination, help to tackle these questions. This book demonstrates this in a fascinating way by analysing the work of two well-known midwives.
Lisa Yarger
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781469630052
- eISBN:
- 9781469630076
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469630052.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Family History
From 1950 until 2001, nurse-midwife Lovie Beard Shelton worked in eastern North Carolina homes, delivering some 4,000 babies to black, white, Mennonite, and hippie women, to those too poor to afford ...
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From 1950 until 2001, nurse-midwife Lovie Beard Shelton worked in eastern North Carolina homes, delivering some 4,000 babies to black, white, Mennonite, and hippie women, to those too poor to afford a hospital birth, and to a few rich enough to have any kind of delivery they pleased. Her life, which was about giving life, was conspicuously marked by loss, including the untimely death of her husband and the murder of her son. Lovie is a provocative chronicle of Shelton’s life and work, which spanned enormous changes in midwifery and in the ways women give birth. In this exploration of documentary fieldwork, Lisa Yarger confronts the choices involved in producing an authentic portrait of a woman who is at once loner and self-styled folk hero. Fully embracing the difficulties of telling a true story, Yarger gets at the story of telling the story. Woven throughout the book is an account of the relationship between Lovie and Yarger as they attempt to bridge the dramatically separate worlds they inhabit. As Lovie describes her calling, the reader meets a woman who sees herself working in partnership with God and who must grapple with the question of what happens when a woman who has devoted her life to service ages out of usefulness: when I'm no longer a midwife, who am I? Facing retirement and a host of health issues, Lovie attempts to fit together the jagged pieces of her life as she prepares for one final home birth.Less
From 1950 until 2001, nurse-midwife Lovie Beard Shelton worked in eastern North Carolina homes, delivering some 4,000 babies to black, white, Mennonite, and hippie women, to those too poor to afford a hospital birth, and to a few rich enough to have any kind of delivery they pleased. Her life, which was about giving life, was conspicuously marked by loss, including the untimely death of her husband and the murder of her son. Lovie is a provocative chronicle of Shelton’s life and work, which spanned enormous changes in midwifery and in the ways women give birth. In this exploration of documentary fieldwork, Lisa Yarger confronts the choices involved in producing an authentic portrait of a woman who is at once loner and self-styled folk hero. Fully embracing the difficulties of telling a true story, Yarger gets at the story of telling the story. Woven throughout the book is an account of the relationship between Lovie and Yarger as they attempt to bridge the dramatically separate worlds they inhabit. As Lovie describes her calling, the reader meets a woman who sees herself working in partnership with God and who must grapple with the question of what happens when a woman who has devoted her life to service ages out of usefulness: when I'm no longer a midwife, who am I? Facing retirement and a host of health issues, Lovie attempts to fit together the jagged pieces of her life as she prepares for one final home birth.
Robert Woods
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199542758
- eISBN:
- 9780191715358
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199542758.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter is concerned with a new history of midwifery, how obstetric practice affected the health and survival of the unborn, and their mothers. It traces the development of scientific knowledge ...
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This chapter is concerned with a new history of midwifery, how obstetric practice affected the health and survival of the unborn, and their mothers. It traces the development of scientific knowledge and clinical practice as represented in the sequence of midwifery textbooks published in London during the 18th century and the more specialist studies on the causes of fetal death published during the 19th century. For example, Sarah Stone, William Smellie, William Hunter, Alexander Hamilton, James Whitehead, and William Priestley all dealt with the causes of abortions and stillbirths. They offered opinions on how to prevent miscarriages and how to treat patients most at risk. Their case notes provide detailed illustrations from practical experience, while their textbooks promote the best clinical advice available. The chapter takes us back to certain basics; it aims to describe what was known, how it was used, and what the consequences were for the fetus and neonate. It is not especially concerned with the exaggerated conflicts between women- and men-midwives, with the history of forceps or the lying-in hospitals as the principal objectives. It is preoccupied with patient outcomes.Less
This chapter is concerned with a new history of midwifery, how obstetric practice affected the health and survival of the unborn, and their mothers. It traces the development of scientific knowledge and clinical practice as represented in the sequence of midwifery textbooks published in London during the 18th century and the more specialist studies on the causes of fetal death published during the 19th century. For example, Sarah Stone, William Smellie, William Hunter, Alexander Hamilton, James Whitehead, and William Priestley all dealt with the causes of abortions and stillbirths. They offered opinions on how to prevent miscarriages and how to treat patients most at risk. Their case notes provide detailed illustrations from practical experience, while their textbooks promote the best clinical advice available. The chapter takes us back to certain basics; it aims to describe what was known, how it was used, and what the consequences were for the fetus and neonate. It is not especially concerned with the exaggerated conflicts between women- and men-midwives, with the history of forceps or the lying-in hospitals as the principal objectives. It is preoccupied with patient outcomes.
John Demos
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195128901
- eISBN:
- 9780199853960
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195128901.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This chapter examines the tradition concerning infancy, childhood, and childbirth in Plymouth Colony. Delivery usually took place at home, and tradition has it that the inner room in the familiar ...
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This chapter examines the tradition concerning infancy, childhood, and childbirth in Plymouth Colony. Delivery usually took place at home, and tradition has it that the inner room in the familiar house plan was also known as the borning room, in reference to its special use in times of childbirth. Childbirth attendants were older women who acted the role of midwives. The chapter also discusses the practices of infant care and feeding, and raising children.Less
This chapter examines the tradition concerning infancy, childhood, and childbirth in Plymouth Colony. Delivery usually took place at home, and tradition has it that the inner room in the familiar house plan was also known as the borning room, in reference to its special use in times of childbirth. Childbirth attendants were older women who acted the role of midwives. The chapter also discusses the practices of infant care and feeding, and raising children.
Irvine Loudon
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198229971
- eISBN:
- 9780191678950
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198229971.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This book studies maternal care and maternal mortality. Over the last two hundred years different countries developed quite different systems of maternal care. This book is an analysis, firmly ...
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This book studies maternal care and maternal mortality. Over the last two hundred years different countries developed quite different systems of maternal care. This book is an analysis, firmly grounded in the available statistics, of the evolution of those systems between 1800 and 1950 in Britain, the US, Australia and New Zealand, and continental Europe. The book examines the effectiveness of various forms of maternal care by means of the measurement of maternal mortality — the number of women who died as a result of childbirth. The study answers a number of questions: What was the relative risk of a home or hospital delivery, or a delivery by a midwife as opposed to a doctor? What was the safest country in which to have a baby, and what were the factors which accounted for enormous international differences? Why, against all expectations, did maternal mortality fail to decline significantly until the late 1930s?Less
This book studies maternal care and maternal mortality. Over the last two hundred years different countries developed quite different systems of maternal care. This book is an analysis, firmly grounded in the available statistics, of the evolution of those systems between 1800 and 1950 in Britain, the US, Australia and New Zealand, and continental Europe. The book examines the effectiveness of various forms of maternal care by means of the measurement of maternal mortality — the number of women who died as a result of childbirth. The study answers a number of questions: What was the relative risk of a home or hospital delivery, or a delivery by a midwife as opposed to a doctor? What was the safest country in which to have a baby, and what were the factors which accounted for enormous international differences? Why, against all expectations, did maternal mortality fail to decline significantly until the late 1930s?
Jenny M. Luke
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781496818911
- eISBN:
- 9781496818959
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496818911.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Health, Illness, and Medicine
Delivering 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 ...
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Delivering 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 during the twentieth century. Moving beyond the usual racial dichotomy, the monograph exposes a more complex shift in childbirth culture to reveal 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. This book identifies valuable aspects of a maternity care model that were discarded in the name of progress. Today concern about maternal mortality and persistent racial disparities have forced a reassessment of maternity care and elements of the long-abandoned care model are being reincorporated into modern practice, answering current health care dilemmas by heeding lessons from the past.Less
Delivering 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 during the twentieth century. Moving beyond the usual racial dichotomy, the monograph exposes a more complex shift in childbirth culture to reveal 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. This book identifies valuable aspects of a maternity care model that were discarded in the name of progress. Today concern about maternal mortality and persistent racial disparities have forced a reassessment of maternity care and elements of the long-abandoned care model are being reincorporated into modern practice, answering current health care dilemmas by heeding lessons from the past.
David. Cressy
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207818
- eISBN:
- 9780191677809
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207818.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Cultural History
This chapter tells a story of sexual dalliance, jealousy, and female sociability that came before the London archdeaconry court in 1635. It is a tale of strong drink and strong women. The central ...
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This chapter tells a story of sexual dalliance, jealousy, and female sociability that came before the London archdeaconry court in 1635. It is a tale of strong drink and strong women. The central character was employed as a midwife, and made claims about her midwifery practice to bolster her reputation. This story has tales within tales, and contested claims to the truth, as women argued in public about affronts to their honour. Elizabeth Wyatt became subject to judicial investigation and half a dozen women gave evidence about her. It was heard that she was ‘keeping company at unlawful hours and in suspicious places’ with Abraham Brand. The midwife's principal accuser was Elizabeth Brand, the wife of Abraham of the parish of Christ Church, London.Less
This chapter tells a story of sexual dalliance, jealousy, and female sociability that came before the London archdeaconry court in 1635. It is a tale of strong drink and strong women. The central character was employed as a midwife, and made claims about her midwifery practice to bolster her reputation. This story has tales within tales, and contested claims to the truth, as women argued in public about affronts to their honour. Elizabeth Wyatt became subject to judicial investigation and half a dozen women gave evidence about her. It was heard that she was ‘keeping company at unlawful hours and in suspicious places’ with Abraham Brand. The midwife's principal accuser was Elizabeth Brand, the wife of Abraham of the parish of Christ Church, London.
David. Cressy
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207818
- eISBN:
- 9780191677809
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207818.003.0017
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Cultural History
This chapter attempts to draw together central themes and to highlight salient issues and connections from various parts of the book. One conclusion, confirmed in every chapter, is that English ...
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This chapter attempts to draw together central themes and to highlight salient issues and connections from various parts of the book. One conclusion, confirmed in every chapter, is that English society under Elizabeth I and the early Stuarts was marked by thousands of competing narratives. Drawn from both archival and textual sources, these stories display the power and perplexity of magistrates and ecclesiastical examiners and the energy of the popular press. Their themes include unwanted pregnancy and illegitimate birth; midwifery, infanticide, and abortion; murder, attempted murder, and attempted suicide; remedies for plague and cures for epilepsy; domestic and professional reputations; the flouting of ecclesiastical discipline; the persistence of traditional beliefs; the cultural significance of clothing; and opposing religious sensibilities in the reign of Charles I. The explosion of print at the beginning of the English revolution points to a ferment of beliefs and religious experiments.Less
This chapter attempts to draw together central themes and to highlight salient issues and connections from various parts of the book. One conclusion, confirmed in every chapter, is that English society under Elizabeth I and the early Stuarts was marked by thousands of competing narratives. Drawn from both archival and textual sources, these stories display the power and perplexity of magistrates and ecclesiastical examiners and the energy of the popular press. Their themes include unwanted pregnancy and illegitimate birth; midwifery, infanticide, and abortion; murder, attempted murder, and attempted suicide; remedies for plague and cures for epilepsy; domestic and professional reputations; the flouting of ecclesiastical discipline; the persistence of traditional beliefs; the cultural significance of clothing; and opposing religious sensibilities in the reign of Charles I. The explosion of print at the beginning of the English revolution points to a ferment of beliefs and religious experiments.
Irvine Loudon
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198229971
- eISBN:
- 9780191678950
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198229971.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter examines maternal mortality in pre-registration England, or the period covering 1800 to 1950. Data gathered from the London Bills of Mortality and parish registers suggests that there ...
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This chapter examines maternal mortality in pre-registration England, or the period covering 1800 to 1950. Data gathered from the London Bills of Mortality and parish registers suggests that there was a continuous and substantial decline in the maternal mortality rate in England from the second half of the 17th century to the first half of the 19th century. This trend may be attributed to an increase in the involvement of medical practitioners with children and to the significant rise in the number, status, skills, and efficiency of English midwives.Less
This chapter examines maternal mortality in pre-registration England, or the period covering 1800 to 1950. Data gathered from the London Bills of Mortality and parish registers suggests that there was a continuous and substantial decline in the maternal mortality rate in England from the second half of the 17th century to the first half of the 19th century. This trend may be attributed to an increase in the involvement of medical practitioners with children and to the significant rise in the number, status, skills, and efficiency of English midwives.
Irvine Loudon
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198229971
- eISBN:
- 9780191678950
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198229971.003.0014
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter discusses the features and condition of maternal care in Great Britain during the period from 1900 to 1935. This period witnessed the increasing involvement of medical, government, and ...
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This chapter discusses the features and condition of maternal care in Great Britain during the period from 1900 to 1935. This period witnessed the increasing involvement of medical, government, and charitable authorities in the care of mothers and children. It was also during this period that the terms ‘maternal and child health’ and ‘maternal and infant welfare’ were coined to symbolize the politics of maternal care. However, despite these developments and the decline in infant mortality, maternal mortality reached 35.5 percent in 1910, 38.7 percent in 1911, and 41.7 percent in 1914. To address the issue, several laws were passed including the Midwives Act of 1902, and the Midwives Act of 1918 and 1936 in England and Wales.Less
This chapter discusses the features and condition of maternal care in Great Britain during the period from 1900 to 1935. This period witnessed the increasing involvement of medical, government, and charitable authorities in the care of mothers and children. It was also during this period that the terms ‘maternal and child health’ and ‘maternal and infant welfare’ were coined to symbolize the politics of maternal care. However, despite these developments and the decline in infant mortality, maternal mortality reached 35.5 percent in 1910, 38.7 percent in 1911, and 41.7 percent in 1914. To address the issue, several laws were passed including the Midwives Act of 1902, and the Midwives Act of 1918 and 1936 in England and Wales.
Irvine Loudon
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198229971
- eISBN:
- 9780191678950
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198229971.003.0019
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter discusses the history of American midwives during the early 20th century. American midwives were so diverse socially and professionally that they are difficult to define and impossible ...
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This chapter discusses the history of American midwives during the early 20th century. American midwives were so diverse socially and professionally that they are difficult to define and impossible to quantify for the country as a whole. During the early 1900s, there were four different types of midwives in the US They were the immigrant midwives, the rural ‘neighbour-midwives’, black midwives of the southern states, and the fully trained midwives. They provided 50 percent of total deliveries in 1900, but in 1935 this figured dropped to 12.5 percent. The decline in the number of midwives was most marked in the north and west and by 1930 more than 80 percent of the midwives were confined to the southern states.Less
This chapter discusses the history of American midwives during the early 20th century. American midwives were so diverse socially and professionally that they are difficult to define and impossible to quantify for the country as a whole. During the early 1900s, there were four different types of midwives in the US They were the immigrant midwives, the rural ‘neighbour-midwives’, black midwives of the southern states, and the fully trained midwives. They provided 50 percent of total deliveries in 1900, but in 1935 this figured dropped to 12.5 percent. The decline in the number of midwives was most marked in the north and west and by 1930 more than 80 percent of the midwives were confined to the southern states.
Irvine Loudon
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198229971
- eISBN:
- 9780191678950
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198229971.003.0025
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter describes midwives in Europe. It argues that certain European countries were safer than the US and Great Britain in terms of childbirth not only because of the quality of obstetric ...
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This chapter describes midwives in Europe. It argues that certain European countries were safer than the US and Great Britain in terms of childbirth not only because of the quality of obstetric service and lying-in hospitals, but largely because their system of maternal care placed great importance on home deliveries by trained midwives. It explains that midwives in France, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Denmark were better trained and more qualified in providing maternal care and services than those in the US and Britain.Less
This chapter describes midwives in Europe. It argues that certain European countries were safer than the US and Great Britain in terms of childbirth not only because of the quality of obstetric service and lying-in hospitals, but largely because their system of maternal care placed great importance on home deliveries by trained midwives. It explains that midwives in France, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Denmark were better trained and more qualified in providing maternal care and services than those in the US and Britain.
Irvine Loudon
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198229971
- eISBN:
- 9780191678950
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198229971.003.0027
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter examines the levels and trends in maternal care and mortality in certain European countries. It suggests that maternal mortality rates in certain European countries, particularly in ...
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This chapter examines the levels and trends in maternal care and mortality in certain European countries. It suggests that maternal mortality rates in certain European countries, particularly in Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Denmark, were lower than those in Great Britain and the US because they had developed very different systems of maternal care with respect to the training and regulation of midwives and the development of obstetrics both as a branch of general practice and as a speciality. This chapter also examines the influence of genetic, socio-economic and cultural differences on the differences between European maternal mortality and that in Great Britain and the U.S., and the effects of World War II on the maternal mortality rate.Less
This chapter examines the levels and trends in maternal care and mortality in certain European countries. It suggests that maternal mortality rates in certain European countries, particularly in Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Denmark, were lower than those in Great Britain and the US because they had developed very different systems of maternal care with respect to the training and regulation of midwives and the development of obstetrics both as a branch of general practice and as a speciality. This chapter also examines the influence of genetic, socio-economic and cultural differences on the differences between European maternal mortality and that in Great Britain and the U.S., and the effects of World War II on the maternal mortality rate.
Renée Levine Melammed
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195151671
- eISBN:
- 9780199849215
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195151671.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
The chapter examines the trial proceedings of a midwife Beatriz Rodriguez whom the Archbishopric of Toledo were anxious to convict. The Inquisition collected information concerning this conversa for ...
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The chapter examines the trial proceedings of a midwife Beatriz Rodriguez whom the Archbishopric of Toledo were anxious to convict. The Inquisition collected information concerning this conversa for fifty years. The character and religious beliefs of a midwife were of utmost concern to the ecclesiastical authorities. The midwife was valued and trusted by the community; this situation presented a challenge to the Church, for “the acquisition of power by peasant women posed a threat to the Church.”Less
The chapter examines the trial proceedings of a midwife Beatriz Rodriguez whom the Archbishopric of Toledo were anxious to convict. The Inquisition collected information concerning this conversa for fifty years. The character and religious beliefs of a midwife were of utmost concern to the ecclesiastical authorities. The midwife was valued and trusted by the community; this situation presented a challenge to the Church, for “the acquisition of power by peasant women posed a threat to the Church.”
