Tending Mothers and the Fruits of the Womb: The Work of the Midwife in the Early Modern German City (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9783515116688)

The early modern period saw a fundamental shift in the history of childbirth from midwifery as a traditional, largely female occupation to modern obstetrics. The seeds of this transformation were sown in the cities, where municipal governments and their medical officials began reworking the often centuries-old systems of municipal midwifery. In Leipzig they overhauled midwife education and in the 1730s appointed a municipal man-midwife. But why all the commotion about midwifery? How 'novel' were these developments really? And how did all these changes affect the everyday work of the city's midwives? Drawing on a vast array of administrative sources, Gabrielle Robilliard explores the world of Leipzig's midwives and early man-midwives from 1650 to 1810. Employing a prosopographical approach, she illuminates in minute detail the occupational culture and structure of both official and unofficial midwifery within the city-including social and economic milieus, client networking practices, and inter- and intraprofessional rivalries-and examines the nature of the encounter between traditional practice and new ways of organising urban midwifery provision.

Author: Gabrielle Robilliard
ISBN-10: 3515116680
ISBN-13: 9783515116688
Publisher: Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden GmbH
Language: English
Published: 08/22/2017
Pages: 309
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.75lbs
Size: 9.40h x 6.70w x 0.90d