Browsing all posts in "obstetrics".
Don’t Ask for a Divorce in Victorian England
In 1858, one of the most brilliant surgeons of his day opened a clinic. Isaac Baker Brown named it, officially, “The London Surgical Home for the Reception of Gentlewomen and Females of Respectability suffering from Curable Surgical Diseases.” [Females of Non-Respectability need not apply.] Brown made his reputation doing ovariotomies for cysts, an operation that [...]
There’s a Bed for That!
Snake oil salesmen abounded in the 18th century. They, like our current quacks, preyed on the coolness of the new sciences (electromagnetism in the 18th, quantum theory in the 21st), the desperate (the infertile, the chronically ill, autism), and the ignorance of the general public. Infertility has led many a desperate couple to do many [...]
The Birth of Rabbits; Followed Closely by: The Birth of Skepticism
In 1724 a would-be midwife named John Maubry published “The Female Physician, containing the Diseases incident to that Sex, in Virgins, Wives, and Widows.” He apparently had little practical experience; much of the book is repetition of ancient wisdom and a direct steal from another source. Nonetheless, he describes being present at the birth, from [...]
Monsters in Massachusetts
When we last left the discussion of fetal abnormalities, it was in 1554 with Jacob Rueff, whose cheerful little book with a chapter on demonically caused monsters was appropriately titled, “A Very Cheerful Booklet of Encouragement Concerning the Conception and Birth of Man and its Frequent Accidents and Hindrances, etc.” Some of the cheerful little [...]
Are Those Little Beasties on Your Hands?
Once, disease was caused by magic. By the time of the wise ancient Greeks, disease was caused by imbalances of humors. This could be due to environment, internal factors, or habits. Regardless, rebalance cured the disease (or killed the patient, but who are we to be picky?). The Christian era removed disease from the hands [...]
Modesty Rules!
The Victorian Age is widely heralded as an era obsessed with modesty and prudery, especially about sexuality. This reputation is not ill-deserved. As more and more men entered the practice of midwifery, there was, perforce, some interaction with the delivering woman’s, um, privates. The less interaction there was, however, the better. And the less the [...]
In Pain Shall She Bring Forth Children
Whoever wrote that book of ancient folktales we call the “Old Testament” was intent on explaining how things came to be. Within her explanatory notes, we find that tale of Adam, Eve, a certain serpent, and an apple. Why a kind, decent, loving God would stick a tree in the middle of paradise with a [...]
Whigs, Tories, Forceps and Crisis
Once the secret of the forceps was out, everybody could use them. But not everybody did. The older, established gentry among the man-midwives (medical degree or no) noted that there were occasional bad outcomes from the forceps–crushed skulls to the fetus, massive tearing to the mothers. The more conservative simply did not use them. William [...]
The Family Business of the Forceps
Before the seventeenth century, when a baby wouldn’t come out, your choices were limited. Since antiquity, the preferred method of dealing with a stalled labor was podalic version. Most midwives, we think, could perform podalic version, in which the baby was turned from head-down to foot-down. This gave the deliverer something to grab onto. Various [...]
Sacerdotal Medicine
While we make fun of premodern medicine, regularly and promiscuously (and are about to start making fun of early modern medicine, regularly and promiscuously), it is important to keep reminding ourselves that there is an end to the madness. Modern medicine has reduced our maternal mortality from 6 out of every 1000 women (the number [...]
