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 »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 »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 […]
Read More »Man-Midwives Behaving Badly
Diane Morris | Thursday, March 12th, 2015 | Childbirth | No Comments
It was not the case that only midwives could be ignorant and incompetent. Some man-midwives were equally injurious when delivering children, despite being trained under doctors and man-midwives who taught classes and used obstetrical machines or phantoms. Mistaking the Placenta for a Tumor Mr. David Evans, a surgeon and man-midwife, described a case in which he […]
Read More »Forceps Fostered the Rise of Man-Midwifery
Diane Morris | Thursday, February 19th, 2015 | Childbirth | No Comments
For most of human history midwives ruled the roost when it came to delivering children, as you may have read in my previous post on Regency midwives. Man-midwives or accoucheurs, as they were known in France, were called to a delivery only when there was a problem or special situation: for example, when a child […]
Read More »Regency Midwives: Toil and Trouble
Diane Morris | Thursday, January 22nd, 2015 | Childbirth, Medicine | 2 Comments
For most of human history the act of giving birth was women’s work. Midwives governed all aspects of the process, from arranging the space where the mother gave birth — the lying-in chamber — to taking charge of the delivery, tying-off the infant’s umbilical cord, and monitoring the mother’s health after the delivery. As the […]
Read More »A Tedious Regency Labor: Hog’s Lard and Laudanum
Diane Morris | Thursday, September 25th, 2014 | Childbirth, Medicine | No Comments
Thanks to Elizabeth Bennet, the heroine of Pride and Prejudice, the character of Anne de Bourgh is forever fixed as “sickly and cross”1—which begs a question: Why is she so disagreeable? In my Regency novel, Rosings Park, Anne has two reasons to be cross as crabs. First, she has returned home from a trip to Tunbridge […]
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