Birth in 1509

jen5-03 · June 2009

I was reading the unassisted birth thread and the debate over what birth was like in 1509.

I just happen to be reading Birth: The Suprising History of How We are Born by Tina Cassidy. Now I'm only on page 54, but it's been very interesting so far.

There are several cultures around the world where even today it IS the norm to have unassisted childbirth. Examples in the book are the Igbo tribe of Nigeria, the Pitjandjara tribe of Australia, and the !Kung San of Namibia. But yes, in European cultures and in most African cultures having other women around to assist you if not a designated midwife was the norm for hundreds of years.

The first English book written on birth was The Byrth of Mankynde, written in 1540, but it was written by a man and of course most women (and even most men) could not read back then. Because midwives of old often practiced superstitious rituals and pagan rights because they thought it would help ensure a safe delivery, some Catholic monks included midwives in their treatise "Malleus maleficarum" which translates to The Hammer of Witches, and was a guide on witch-hunting, basically saying that midwives were witches. This was written in 1479. So we can safely say that use of midwives was widespread well before 1509 in Europe.