Birth
Birth
Women's Domain. Throughout the entire period from 1350 to 1600, childbirth was strictly a female affair. The husband was not present unless his wife was dying, and male doctors took little interest in delivery. Male physicians were only called in if the child, mother, or both were dead or dying, so their presence was dreaded. As the time of the birth approached, a woman began to make preparations. She decided which friends and neighbors she would invite to assist her. This determination was a matter taken seriously, for witchcraft accusations occasionally stemmed from the curses and anger of a neighbor who had not been invited. If the expectant mother lived in a rural area, she would generally contact a woman known to be experienced in handling childbirth, along with other friends and relatives. If she lived in a city, however, professional midwives who had undergone a long period of training and apprenticeship might also be available to assist her.
Labor. Whether in the countryside or city, once a woman knew she was in labor, the women assisting her transformed a room of the house, or in small houses a bed, into a “lying-in chamber,” according to local traditions of what was proper. In many parts of Europe, air was viewed as harmful to the mother, so doors and windows were shut and candles lit. Special objects believed to be helpful in speeding delivery were brought in, such as amulets, relics of saints, or certain herbs. Special prayers were offered, and the women prepared broth or mulled wine (termed “caudle” in England) to nourish the mother through the delivery. They also arranged swaddling clothes for the infant.
Delivery. The actual techniques of delivery varied widely, even within the same town. Some midwives and mothers preferred to use a birthing stool, a special padded stool with handles that tipped the mother back slightly; other mothers lay in bed, kneeled, stood, or sat in another woman's lap. The level of intervention also varied from midwife to midwife. Some tried to speed the birth along by making the mother change positions or pulling on the child as it emerged, while others might wait for days during a difficult labor before attempting to interfere. The most-skillful and best-trained midwives took a middle route, intervening only when they thought it necessary. If they were able to read, they might consult a printed midwives’ guide, such as the Rosengarten für swangere Frauen und Hebammen (Rose-garden for Midwives and Pregnant Women, 1513) written by the German city doctor Eucharius Rösslin.
Risky Business. Childbirth was an event with many meanings, at once a source of joy and dread. Most women experienced multiple childbirths successfully, but all knew of or even had watched someone die while giving birth. Using English statistics, it has been estimated that the maternal mortality rate in the sixteenth century was about 1 percent for each birth, which would make a lifetime risk of 5 to 7 percent. Women knew these risks, which is why they attempted to obtain the services of the midwife they regarded as the most skilled. Midwives were responsible for the spiritual as well as the physical well-being of the children they delivered, for they were allowed to perform emergency baptisms on children they thought might die.
Birth Control. Mothers recognized that the dangers of childbirth might be intensified when children were born too close together, and attempted to space births through a variety of means. Many nursed their children until they were more than two years old, which acted as a contraceptive, for suckling encourages the release of the hormone prolactin, which promotes the production of milk and inhibits the function of the ovaries. They also sought to abstain from sexual relations during the time of their monthly cycle regarded as most fertile, though this “rhythm method” was based on an incorrect view of the menstrual cycle and was not very effective. Couples regularly attempted to restrict fertility through coitus interruptus, magical charms, and herbal potions, though all of these methods were condemned by religious leaders. Condoms made from animal intestines or bladders were available by the mid sixteenth century to
those who could afford them, but they were originally designed to protect men from venereal disease carried by prostitutes and were only slowly seen as a possible means of birth control for married couples.
Postpartum Rituals. The experience of childbirth did not end with actual birth. In most parts of Europe, mothers were advised to undergo a period of “lying-in” after the birth, in which they sharply restricted their activities and contacts with the outside world. Although this seclusion was difficult for many rural and poor women, religious taboos that made a recently delivered mother impure meant that such restrictions were often followed even when this activity brought hardship to the family because the woman was not working. Russia had perhaps the strongest taboos, for Orthodox Christianity taught that everything associated with childbirth, including the midwife, attendants, place, and even the child, was impure. Not until her ritual of purification, which occurred forty days after birth, was anyone supposed to eat in the woman's company; baptism was often delayed until the same day so that the newborn remained impure and could nurse from its impure mother. Judaism and Catholicism had a similar ritual of purification, though contacts with the mother were not so sharply restricted. Her movements outside the home were, however, which meant a Catholic woman could not attend her own child's baptism; in Italy the midwife who carried the child was the only woman normally present at a baptism. In some parts of Catholic Europe, this purification ceremony was seen as so important that it was performed over the coffin of a woman who had died in childbirth.
New Rituals. After the Reformation, Protestants rejected the idea that women needed to be purified after giving birth, but some Protestants retained the ceremony, commonly called churching, terming it instead a service of thanksgiving. In some Lutheran areas, churching was required of all married mothers and forbidden to those who gave birth out of wedlock, which created a distinction between honorable and dishonorable women. Among Protestants in England, unmarried women who had given birth were only to be churched if they named the father and wore a white sheet signifying that they were sorry for their actions during the service. A woman attended her churching in the presence of the women who had been with her during the birth, including the midwife, and often saw churching as the final stage of childbirth; many of the rituals that were part of churching were devised by women themselves, not highly learned theologians. Churching is, in fact, only one of many popular rituals and beliefs surrounding birth that did not die out by 1600. Evidence gathered in the mid twentieth century indicates that people in many parts of Europe continued to regard a woman who had recently given birth as unlucky, and they prohibited her from touching wells or stalls or visiting her neighbors.
A BIRTHING REGIMEN
This selection is from a popular midwives’ manual, Rosengarten für swangere Frum und Hebammen (Rosegarden for Midwives and Pregnant Women), written by a German city doctor, Eucharius Rösslin, and published in 1513.
When the pregnant woman nears delivery, she should drink mature wine mixed with water. She should also have a regimen of food and drink, a regimen a month before birth which makes one moist but not too fat, and one should avoid what makes one dry, constipated, weighs down, presses or constricts. When the woman is even nearer to delivery, when she still has twelve or fourteen days and feels some pain and pressure, she should sit in a bath up to her navel every day, sometimes more often, but not too long (so that she doesn't get weak). She should move around with easy work and movements, walking and standing more than she did before. Such things help the fetus come into position.
Another regimen for the time of delivery which the woman should need if she feels pressure, pain and some moistness begins to show and flow out of the vagina. This regimen takes place in two ways. The first is that one brings on a quick descent and delivery. The other way to lessen complications, labor pains, and pain is for her to sit down for an hour and then stand and climb up and down the stairs shouting loudly. The woman should force out and hold her breath (breathe heavily) so that she puts pressure on her intestines and bears down. The woman should also drink those medicines that are written about afterwards for they force the child downward into delivery position. When she feels the uterus dilate and plenty of fluid flow to her genitals (i.e., water breaks), she should lie on her back, but not complete lying down or standing. It should be a middle position between lying and standing. She should tilt her head more towards the back than the front. In southern German and in Italian/French areas, the midwives have special chairs for delivery. They are not high, but hollowed out with an opening in the inside. The chair should be prepared so that the woman can lean on her back One should fill and cover the back of the same chair with cloth and when it is time, the midwife should lift the cloth and turn them first to the right and then to the left side. The midwife should sit in front of her and pay careful attention to the child's movement in the womb. The midwife should guide and control her arms and legs with her hands which are coated with white-lily or almond oil or the like. And with her hands in the same way, the midwife should also gently grasp the mother, as she well knows. The midwife should also instruct, guide, and teach the mother, and strengthen her with food and drink. She should urge the woman on to work with soft, kind words so that she begins to breathe deeply. One should dry her stomach off gently above the navel and hips. The midwife should comfort the woman by predicting a successful birth of a baby boy. And if the woman is fat, she should not sit, rather lie on her body and lay her forehead on the ground and pull her knees up underneath so that the womb has pressure applied to it. Afterwards, she should anoint her internally with white-lily oil and, if necessary, the mid-wife should open the woman's cervix with her hands and afterwards, the woman will deliver quickly.
Source: Euchamis Rösslin, Rosengarten für swangere Frauen und Hebammen (Frankfurt, 1513), Translation by Merry Wiesner-Hanks.
Sources
David Cressy, Birth, Marriage, and Death: Ritual, Religion, and the Life-Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England (Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).
Jacques Gélis, History of Childbirth: Fertility, Pregnancy and Birth in Early Modern Europe, translated by Rosemary Morris (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1991; Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1991).
Jacqeuline Marie Musacchio, The Art and Ritual of Childbirth in Renaissance Italy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999).