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Women's Role As A Midwife

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Birthing a Nation: Mothers, Midwives and Mysteries The reading in question relates to the role of the woman as a midwife – more specifically in the 17th to 18th centuries. It explores how this role began to change over the course of the latter century with the emergence of the “man-midwife”. While this particular reading takes a more passive approach to its topic, it’s focus is undoubtedly on the enduring importance of the role of the midwife. Cody makes it clear that despite the growing popularity of the “man-midwife,” the midwife herself remained a staple in British society, one who could not be so easily replaced. Cody explains that women were able to retain their hold over the practice of midwifery because they were seen as the “natural …show more content…

The mother-to-be was the one to decide when to send for the midwife and other women, and upon their arrival was sequestered into a darkened room with men kept far out of range. Afterwards, a successful delivery would be celebrated with drinking, singing, and recounting of scandalous tales amongst the women. The birth room was, in essence, its own “tightly enclosed time and space,” one in which men were unwelcome for what could be hours or days. Prior to the emergence of the “man-midwife,” the appearance of a medical man during labour could mean only one thing: death. Their presence signified complications that often led to the passing of the child, mother, or in particularly tragic cases – both. Such dark connotations would obviously have led to wariness when contacting a medical man during this period, as more often than not in such cases, it fell to him to play the unfortunate role of grim …show more content…

Or the Whole Art of Midwifery,” who as a midwife herself seems a fairly credible primary source of information. This book sets the outline for Cody’s whole argument: that midwives were essentially superior to the increasingly popular “man-midwife”. Other sources include Thomas Chamberlayne’s “The Complete Midwife’s Practice Enlarged,” proof that she did incorporate the male viewpoint into her argument. She also uses secondary sources to back up her argument, those such as “Childbearing and Female Bonding in Early Modern England” by Linda Pollock. Her sources range from similar to diverse, with citations from books such as Keith Thomas’s “Religion and the Decline of Magic.” In conclusion, Lisa Cody presents a strong argument and has a plethora of varied sources to back it

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Laurel Ulrich’s A Midwifes Tale is a book over Marth Ballard who was a New England women living in America. Ulrich uses Marth Ballard diary entries along with other historical documents from the eighteenth century to show her audience the life of women specifically a midwife in the American society, and the sexual standards that were present during the eighteenth century. Martha Ballard the wife of Ephraim Ballard was midwife during the eighteenth century in Hallowell, who not only played the role of a midwife in the society, but also the role of a wife and a mother. Ulrich starts to book by talking about scarlet fever epidemic that had taken places in Hallowell during the summer of 1787. During the time of the fever and after the epidemic had ended, Martha played the role of an important member in the community, even though the social structure in Hallowell was giving more importance to male doctors.

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In the 1800’s, men were the only ones that became doctors. That is until 1849 when Elizabeth Blackwell graduated from medical school (Lewis, Jone Johnson). Being the first woman to receive a medical diploma, Elizabeth Blackwell opened up the door for women everywhere to become doctors (“Elizabeth Blackwell (1821-1910)”). Women in the 1800’s were usually midwives, but Elizabeth Blackwell changed that for women everywhere. Elizabeth Blackwell was born February 3, 1821 in Bristol, England ("Elizabeth Blackwell").

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“What a man can be, he must be,” is a quote by Dr. Abraham Maslow in the book Motivation and Personality, which talked about a hierarchical pyramid of human needs. It means, such as, if a girl wants to be a midwife, she must be a midwife, like in the book The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman. The main character, Alyce, wants to find a place in the world by becoming a midwife, and it is the most important thing to her. However, her age and gender affect the conflict.

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Many might disagree with my opinion and position in this argument, but with the right reasons and evidence,

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Around the late 18th to early 19th century, colonial American New England life was centered on living independently and being finally free from the British Empire after the Revolutionary War. Establishing control of a newly founded government with set functions and a first president, there were progressive changes that America had to act upon post-war. However, behind the political aspects that are greatly highlighted in American history, the roles of women in society, particularly midwives shouldn’t be cast aside. Although women were largely marginalized in early New England life because of their gender, nevertheless Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s A Midwife’s Tale is instructive because it demonstrates the privilege of men’s authority in society

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866 Words | 4 Pages

In the early 1900s, women’s health was non-existent. It was not taught in school, it was never spoken about in the media, and many women themselves had no knowledge about reproductive health. During this time it was common to see women with ten, fifteen, even twenty pregnancies throughout their lives. Men and women both were often unaware on how to plan or prevent a pregnancy and birth control was pronounced illegal. Consequently, this was also a period of high childbirth mortality, as well as a time where many women were dying due to self-induced or “back-alley” abortions.

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Between 1630 and 1670, about three to ten percent of women who gave birth died following their child’s birth. Childbirth was one of the top reasons for women’s death. Although this was dangerous towards many women, many births still followed (Berkin

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In “The Pastoralization of Housework” by Jeanne Boydston, Boydston explores the effect of the romanization of housework. The pastoralization of housework that occurred during the Antebellum period was the result of the development of early industrialization. In order to have something remain constant in the changing times the formation of two separate gender spheres allowed a routine to an ever changing society. A result of these two spheres was the pastoralization of domestic labor in the early 1800s that made labor ‘invisible’ and began to discredit the women’s work at home, but also raised them to a higher pedestal in the family dynamic. By embracing the idea of True Motherhood women were able to flourish by the naturalization of the social

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901 Words | 4 Pages

Craft examines the usual roles of the Victorian men and women, passive women especially, requiring them to “suffer and be still”. The men of this time were higher up on the important ladder of that era. Craft believes the men are the “doers” or active ones in

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Sethe embraces the dominant values of idealised maternity. Sethe’s fantasy is

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Women in the Elizabethan Era were expected to do almost nothing but clean their house, cook, give birth and be a good, innocent and a pure mother and wife. It was expected for a woman to produce offspring every two years. It was praised upon if a woman if she has more children than she was “supposed” to have. They had to give birth every two years, and have as many children as possible. Sadly, one of the main reasons that it was so honoured was that babies died in infancy or at an early age, which is due to the poor health and hygiene conditions.

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941 Words | 4 Pages

The domination of medicine and science by men was very understandable by Victorian standards because women were seen as incapable of generating the intelligence that such an occupation required. Many Victorian scientists and doctors viewed menstruation as a prime example of this evolutionary handicap. During menses, women “suffer under a languor and

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During the Victorian Era, society bound women to the home, as there was a prevailing attitude that considered domesticity and motherhood to be a sufficient emotional fulfilment for females. This glorification of a “woman’s mission” stifled women, as they were expected to conform to the demanding and restrictive expectations of being a model mother, wife, and daughter. Queen Victoria, who represented the revered femininity centred on the family, motherhood and respectability, epitomized the perfect realization of these societal demands. As a result of her idyllic marriage and family dynamic, Victoria came to be seen as the very model of marital stability and domestic virtue. However within this antiquated period, writer Thomas Hardy presented

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2180 Words | 9 Pages

Midwifery In The Middle Ages One of the most important jobs to the women of the Middle Ages is often left forgotten and unmentioned. Without these people, there would not have been enough people to populate the villages and castles of Medieval times, or even enough to build such structures. Without someone ensuring that most births are successful, the population would not have been big enough for society to develop manorialism, or enough citizens become knights, or to fight in the Crusades, or to form guilds and towns, or even enough people to consider the Middle Ages a significant part of history, Midwives were an essential part of Medieval society, in many ways. A midwife is a person who assists a woman in childbirth, who, in the

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“Man for the field and woman for the hearth: Man for the sword and for the needle she: Man with the head and woman with the heart: Man to command and woman to obey; All else confusion.” The Princess, Alfred Tennyson (1847) Women in the patriarchal society of Victorian Britain were expected to be domesticated family orientated beings. Their priority in life was to marry and bear children. As Susan Kent states “Barred by law and custom from entering trades and professions by which they could support themselves, and restricted in the possession of property, woman had only one means of livelihood, that of marriage” (Kent 86).

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