In the Middle Ages, a mother might be confined to the home after giving birth for thirty to sixty days. The general idea was that childbirth made a woman spiritually and/or physically unclean for a time, and she was kept separate from much of society until she underwent a purification ceremony at a church or synagogue. The tradition began in theContinue reading “Maternity Leave, Then and Now”
Author Archives: eblackard
Educating Midwives
Education and training for midwives was a rollercoaster ride from antiquity to the Middle Ages. Rome and Greece educated and trained their midwives just as they educated and trained their other physicians. Medieval Europe…not so much. That didn’t mean medieval Europe didn’t want or need midwives. Far from it! They just…didn’t support them as wellContinue reading “Educating Midwives”
Complications in Childbirth
How did medieval midwives and physicians deal with complications during childbirth? We can’t speak for every midwife, or even every medieval country, but we’re beginning to get a larger picture of medieval medicine. Thanks to translations of books like the Trotula – a manual written in Italy, around the 1100s – we know that medieval midwives and physicians hadContinue reading “Complications in Childbirth”
Home Births in Medieval England
Most women would not give birth in hospitals until the twentieth century. And for good reason! In the medieval period, hospitals were not as sanitary as they are in developed countries today, and were more like sick houses or temporary living for the impoverished. Not a good place for mother and baby to go! Instead, women in theContinue reading “Home Births in Medieval England”
Medieval Midwives 