Midwives, Society and Childbirth is the first book to examine midwives' lives and work in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries on a national and international scale. Focusing on six countries from Europe, the approach is interdisciplinary with the studies written by a diverse team of social, medical and midwifery historians, sociologists, and those with experience in delivering childbirth services. Questioning for the first time many conventional historical assumptions, this book is fundamental to a better understanding of the effect on midwives of the unprecedented progress of science in general and obstetric science in particular from the late nineteenth century. The contributors challenge the traditional bleak picture of midwives' decline in the face of institutional obstetrics, medical technology, and the growing power of the medical profession, while stressing the importance of regional influences and locality. Dr Anne Marie Rafferty, Philadelphia, Dr Hilary Marland, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Dr Irvine Louden, Oxfordshire, Joan Mottram, Wellcome Unit for the History of Medic
Inhaltsverzeichnis
List of figures, List of tables, Notes on contributors, Acknowledgements, INTRODUCTION MIDWIVES, SOCIETY AND CHILDBIRTH: DEBATES AND CONTROVERSIES, 1 ESTABLISHING THE SCOPE OF PRACTICE: ORGANIZING EUROPEAN MIDWIFERY IN THE INTER-WAR YEARS 1919-1938, 2 SWEDISH MIDWIVES AND THEIR INSTRUMENTS IN THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES, 3 HOW TO BE A MIDWIFE IN LATE NINETEENTHCENTURY SPAIN, 4 ROSALIND PAGET: THE MIDWIFE, THE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT AND REFORM BEFORE 1914, 5 THE 'ANTISEPTIC' TRANSFORMATION OF DANISH MIDWIVES, 1860-1920, 6 STATE CONTROL IN LOCAL CONTEXT: PUBLIC HEALTH AND MIDWIFE REGULATION IN MANCHESTER, 1900-1914, 7 THE MIDWIFE AS HEALTH MISSIONARY: THE REFORM OF DUTCH CHILDBIRTH PRACTICES IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY, 8 MIDWIVES AND THE QUALITY OF MATERNAL CARE, 9 THE END OF HOME BIRTHS IN THE GERMAN LANGUAGE ISLANDS OF NORTHERN ITALY, 10 MIDWIFERY AND MEDICINE: GENDERED KNOWLEDGE IN THE PRACTICE OF DELIVERY, 11 THE CONTROLLING POWER OF CHILDBIRTH IN BRITAIN, 12 MIDWIVES AMONG THE MACHINES: RE-CREATING MIDWIFERY IN THE LATE TWENTIETH CENTURY, Index
