WHEN MIDWIVES LOST GROUND TO DOCTORS AND SCIENCE.

POLITICS OF MEDICINE Circa 15th mid 16th century: 

“Besides prescribing, midwives according to the author-physicians,attended all manner of deliveries, normal as well as difficult, and even ‘the most inexpert of midwives’  knew how to carry out a Caesarian post-mortem’. Such responsibilities were recognised as being her own, the intervention of the surgeon as being limited to cases where the dead foetus had to be extracted in pieces and to gynaecological problems of a surgical nature. The physician only intervened in cases of fever or general illness during the pregnancy, birth or puerperium.The midwifes’ duties continued after birth and she was in charge of caring for the infant and mother…….

……It is my belief that physicians, although this was never their claim, actually wrote for themselves, aspiring to possess new knowledge rather than devote themselves to it……Given that the cultural and social circumstances did not make  their works readily accessible to midwives, …..( this) may have been an attempt to overcome the obstacle of morality and customs which placed childbirth within the female domain. It is here that one of the origins of the transformation of childbirth into an aspect of medical science may be found”.