058-063DYA3readbirth_Layout 1 07/02/2014 14:50 Page 58 LIFE EVENTS} Travail guide Sara Read explores the experience of childbirth for women in the early modern period 58 www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS 058-063DYA3readbirth_Layout 1 07/02/2014 14:50 Page 59 LIFE EVENTS} A 1546 woodcut showing three pregnant women 17th century mother of nine, Yorkshire gentlewoman Alice AThornton remembered the pain of labour as resembling being “on the rack”, the medieval instrument of torture which stretched one limb from limb. Thornton was reminiscing about giving birth to her fifth child in the mid-17th century, but the metaphor was a regular one, appearing for example in the midwife Jane Sharp’s 1671 midwifery guidebook. This article explores the ways in which women London Library, Wellcome prepared for and experienced labour and birth in the early modern era. her in labour. The name gossips thing she would do was to pray for the Sharp’s book provides a useful focus for derived from the phrase ‘god’s helpers’, safe delivery of the woman and child. this because its whole point was to and men were mostly excluded from The threat of death was never far teach trainee midwives and in doing so the process. from the early-modern birthing to save women from mistaken beliefs The midwife would arrive carrying chamber, despite the fact that the vast or ill-informed midwifery care. her bag containing oils, medicines, majority of births were problem free. The resulting book, The Whole Art of some tools, but also various cloths for After getting married in her mid- Midwifry Discovered, drew extensively different tasks. In The Ten Pleasures of twenties, the average woman could on the works of medical writers and Marriage (1682), the author joked that expect to give birth around five times, doctors such as Daniel Sennert and a midwife might offer “warmed beds and the maternal mortality rate was Nicholas Culpeper, but her borrowings and other Clouts, the number and around 1% per pregnancy. The main are not taken wholesale. Often Sharp names whereof are without end”. She difference between then and now is would amend the doctors’ words to might also carry a birthing stool (a that that if something went wrong match more closely to what she had stool with a section cut out for the during the course of the labour, the found in her 30 years of practice. It was delivery), although these were more chances of a woman and her child the first female authored book on the common in Europe than England. surviving were very much lower than topic to be written in English, and so When the midwife arrived, the first they are nowadays. This means that most unusually it gives a female voice to the subject which women inevitably knew most about. ! PREPARING FOR THE BABY The onset of labour Before the expected time of birth a woman would need to prepare When a woman felt her ‘throes’ or the layette, and make sure that she had all the linen that the baby labour pains start, the advice seems would need. All the baby’s clothing and bedding would need to be very modern. Sharp advises women in sewn by hand. Preparation like this wasn’t just a matter of practical- ‘travel/travail’ to try and keep as active ity, but was essential if anything should happen to the baby during as possible. She should also keep birth and it not survive. If the woman had gone into labour unex- herself warm. All early modern pectedly and delivered a stillborn child she might be accused of women gave birth at home, as there having murdered the child, but if she could show that she had was no concept of a hospital as we gathered together an appropriate amount of ‘childbed linen’ then know it. She wouldn’t be alone though this provided an accepted defence that she was prepared for the as births were a female social event, birth and ready for the baby’s arrival. Childbed linen was costly and and a woman would have a party so it was normal for women to share with one another. made up of her ‘gossips’: her friends, neighbours, and family, supporting DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS | www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk 59 058-063DYA3readbirth_Layout 1 07/02/2014 14:50 Page 60 LIFE EVENTS} Scenes from childbirth textbook The Rose Garden (1513) by German physician Eucharius Rösslin – the first printed book to show the birthing stool (top right), the lying-in chamber and positions of the foetus in the uterus. It was first published in English in the 1540s as The Birth of Mankind most women would have known or at the Garden of Eden. John Marten speed up the delivery, and recommends least heard of someone who had died explained in 1711 “if the first Woman various things from oiling the woman’s during their delivery. Eve, had not sinned, she had never private parts, to ‘suffumigations’ which been exposed to the Pangs of Child- were medicines heated on hot coals to Care in established labour birth”. produce a specifically smelling smoke The name midwife comes from the However, most medical guides or ‘fume’ to open up her body. A German phase ‘with woman’ and the offered suggestions for pain relief for pessary dipped in the herb rue might midwife would stay with a labouring women who were suffering extremely also speed up the labour. woman throughout her labour and hard labours. Certain types of women To help a labour along midwives delivery. Jane Sharp advises midwives were thought more likely to have an sometimes applied an ‘eagle stone’ (a to keep the labouring woman’s spirits uncomfortable labour, including very type of geode) to the woman’s private up with comforting words, also one of young women, women who were “gross parts. But, as Sharp warns, this was the jobs of the ‘gossips’. Some pain was and fat” or conversely those who were thought to be so powerful that it should expected in labour and broadly “spare and lean”. The Birth of Mankind be removed as soon as the afterbirth accepted as being God’s will, a (1545) offered advice for easing labour had been delivered or it would cause consequence of Eve’s transgression in pains, mainly concerned with trying to the woman harm. Other things to help 60 www.discoveryourancestors.co.uk | DISCOVER YOUR ANCESTORS 058-063DYA3readbirth_Layout 1 07/02/2014 14:50 Page 61 LIFE EVENTS} labour along included herbal drinks made up of betony, sage or other suitable herbs. To help the birth or to help bring down the after birth the midwife might administer pepper to cause a sneezing fit. If the woman had been in labour a long time and needed sustenance then it would be in order to give her chicken broth, or a poached egg, with a little wine or other strong water. Later in a labour the gossips often helped to hold the woman up as she was about to deliver; they might also be encouraged to stroke the pregnant woman’s belly in a downward O'Donnell Jenny motion to encourage the baby to move ‘The Midwife's Vade Mecum’ by Aristotle – this handbook was used as a ‘pocket book’ into the birth canal. from which pages could be removed for ease of reference. These were typically produced from the 18th century onwards – the above edition dates from the 19th The delivery century. The first handbooks of midwifery were published in the 17th century There was no one preferred position for women to give birth in, but Sharp baby started to come. The waters the midwife would check the abdomen advises that very fat women should be surrounding the baby were thought to to check that no further babies were in encouraged to kneel face down to give make delivery easier if they broke on the womb. birth. Some women lay on the bed, the point of delivery, since they made propped up by her gossips, others used the birth canal more slippery, so they After the birth a birthing stool or sat on the side of her were never deliberately broken in After the baby was born and the bed. In the final stages of labour advance. If this had already happened afterbirth, or womb-cake as it was often women were also encouraged to hold then it was suggested that the woman’s called, was delivered, the midwife had their breath to encourage the baby to vagina was smeared with egg, or more several further tasks to perform. If the come out in search of air. The midwife oil of lilies to help the birth. Sharp labour was particularly hard then would cover her hand with oil of lilies warns her sister midwives not to force wrapping the woman’s back in a newly or almonds, or a little grease such as the baby out for fear of harming the flayed sheep skin, presumably to keep butter, and perform internal examina- mother or child, and of causing the her warm and comfortable, was tions to ascertain the position of the woman terrible pain. thought to be a good idea. It was also child in the womb. She might keep her After the child’s delivery, and considered good practice after all hand inside the woman from then on especially in cases where the woman deliveries to lay a hare skin, covered in to be in a position to help when the still seemed to be in some discomfort, its own blood, on a woman’s abdomen for two hours in winter and an hour in Science Museum, London/Wellcome Images London/Wellcome Museum, Science summer.