The development of midwifery from the past to the present
Midwifery is the health science and profession that deals with pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period, as well as the sexual and reproductive health of women throughout their lives. Midwives are trained and skilled professionals who provide care and support to women and their newborns during these critical stages of life. Midwifery has a long and rich history that spans across cultures, continents, and centuries.
The origins of midwifery
The practice of midwifery can be traced back to the Paleolithic era (40,000 B.C.), where pregnancy and childbirth required women to give birth in challenging and often life-threatening environments. Women supported themselves during birth based on knowledge and skills they learned from observing other mammals. Indigenous cultures all over the world practiced various traditions around birth, many of them spiritual and rooted in nature and herbal medicine. For example, the Maori people of New Zealand used supplejack and flax root for contraception, and would typically burn the designated birthing spot after labor .
From 3500 B.C. to 300 B.C., the Egyptian and Greco-Roman eras saw enormous progress in the development and recognition of midwifery as an autonomous, scientific, and respected paid profession. Midwives were known by many different titles, such as iatrine (Greek for nurse), maia (Greek for midwife), obstetrix (Latin for obstetrician), and medica (Latin for doctor). They used instruments, techniques, and remedies that are still in use today, such as forceps, vaginal examinations, sutures, pessaries, and fumigations .
However, in late 300 B.C., the social attitudes about female midwives changed, and midwifery became a profession under the hierarchy of male-supervised medicine. Male physicians began to dominate the field of obstetrics, often dismissing or discrediting the knowledge and skills of midwives. In Europe and the Mediterranean, the biblical era (2200 B.C. – 1700 B.C.) saw the empowerment of women play a large role in building professionalism in midwifery. However, by the arrival of the High Middle Ages (1000-1250 A.D.), female midwives or healers were considered heretics or witches and would therefore be hung or burned to death .
The development of midwifery
In China, female midwives practiced midwifery by means of traditional Chinese medicine—like qi, yinyang, and wuxing principles—for thousands of years. These women were often illiterate, and most of these practices were confined within small communities and performed in the home. These practices remained the same until the 13th century when male medical practitioners began to formalize and control medicine and obstetrics .
In both Thailand and Chile, centuries-old practices of midwifery were originally and historically services reserved for the poor and underprivileged, although today, women and birthing people of all socioeconomic backgrounds access midwives . All over Africa, traditional midwives and other healers have been an integral part of medicine for centuries. They have used local plants, herbs, rituals, massage, prayers, songs, and stories to assist women during pregnancy and childbirth .
In the United States, midwifery has faced many challenges and changes throughout history. In colonial times, most births were attended by midwives who learned their skills from their mothers or other women in their communities. They were often enslaved African women or Native American women who had their own traditions and practices around birth . However, with the rise of medicalization, urbanization, immigration, racism, sexism, and classism in the 19th and 20th centuries, midwifery was marginalized and suppressed by the medical establishment. Midwives were portrayed as ignorant, unclean,
