Regency-Era Heresy over the Cause of Childbed Fever
Diane Morris | Thursday, August 18th, 2016 | Childbirth, Medicine | No Comments
“You are all familiar with Dr. Chipman’s aphorism, ‘The process of parturition is the same in the countess as in the cow.’ Very true, but, unfortunately, the results are infinitely better in the cow than in the countess.” — Karl M. Wilson, M.D.1 Dr. Wilson published his comment about countesses and cows in 1936. He lamented […]
Read More »Childbed Fever: How Many Regency Women Died?
Diane Morris | Thursday, August 4th, 2016 | Childbirth, Medicine | No Comments
“A deep, dark and continuous stream of mortality.”—William Farr, 18761 Most medical practitioners in England’s Regency era believed that miasma caused puerperal or childbed fever. The miasma was believed to arrive on foul-smelling air, to emanate from clothing and furniture, or to be given off by a woman’s body itself. It seemed to be cured with emetics that made patients […]
Read More »Treating a Regency Case of Childbed Fever
Diane Morris | Thursday, July 21st, 2016 | Childbirth, Medicine | No Comments
My previous blog posts examined the supposed causes of childbed fever as they were understood in late 18th-century England, when Jane Austen was a teenager, and also the treatments prescribed to manage the symptoms of this often fatal disease. In reading various books on midwifery and childbed fever published in the late 1700s and early 1800s, […]
Read More »Childbed Fever: 18th-Century Cures
Diane Morris | Thursday, July 7th, 2016 | Childbirth, Medicine | No Comments
My previous post on childbed fever described the widespread belief that childbed fever — what today we call puerperal infections — was mainly caused by breathing foul, noxious air that arrived on the wind, permeated hospital furniture and people’s clothing, or emanated from a woman’s own body. In truth, the 18th-century medical practitioners who tended new mothers after delivery had […]
Read More »Childbed Fever: More 18th-Century Medical Moonshine
Diane Morris | Thursday, June 23rd, 2016 | Childbirth, Medicine | 2 Comments
Earlier this month I took a detour and posted a blog about Whit Stillman’s movie Love and Friendship, which is based on Jane Austen’s novella Lady Susan. With this blog I am returning to the ever-fascinating topic of Regency medicine and specifically to a discussion of miasma. Previously I discussed quinsy, a serious and sometimes fatal […]
Read More »A Regency Labor: Are You Prepared to Take a Pain?
Diane Morris | Thursday, June 25th, 2015 | Childbirth | No Comments
Any pregnant woman during the Regency period would have known what a man-midwife meant when he asked: Are you prepared to take a pain? To “take a pain” was a popular expression meaning to submit to an examination per vaginam (“via the vagina”). I found this gem in Dr. Thomas Denman’s book on the practice […]
Read More »Anne de Bourgh Sits as a Gossip: Is Society Shocked?
Diane Morris | Thursday, June 11th, 2015 | Childbirth, Jane Austen, Regency Research | No Comments
Would polite Society censure Miss Anne de Bourgh for sitting as a gossip during her friend’s delivery? This question was one of the first I asked when researching my Regency novel, Rosings Park, which is based on characters in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. It isn’t an easy question to answer. Gossiping was a centuries-old […]
Read More »When Gossiping Was a Good Thing
Diane Morris | Thursday, May 21st, 2015 | Childbirth | 2 Comments
Strange as it seems to us, the word “gossip” had a friendly meaning during the Regency period and for many centuries before that: a “gossip” was a woman who attended her daughter’s or sister’s or friend’s delivery. In its original sense, the word was a corruption of “god-sib” or “god-sibling,” meaning “sister in the Lord.” During […]
Read More »Forceps Use in the Regency Era vs Today
Diane Morris | Thursday, May 7th, 2015 | Childbirth | No Comments
Forceps were invented by a surgeon in the early 17th century and gained acceptance among man-midwives or accoucheurs during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Midwives, not surprisingly, argued strongly against their use, believing the hands were Nature’s best instrument. Today forceps are still used in the delivery room, but there are questions about their […]
Read More »Battle Passionné: Midwife vs Man-Midwife
Diane Morris | Thursday, March 26th, 2015 | Childbirth | 2 Comments
Two parties waged a passionate battle throughout the Regency period and long afterward over the admittance of men to the practice of midwifery. On one side stood the midwives, who promoted patience and a reliance on Nature during delivery. On the opposing side were man-midwives or accoucheurs, who received training in anatomy, physiology, medicine and sometimes […]
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