From the 18th century, midwifery training evolved from being a loose system of apprenticeship and licensing, to one of formalised training with a university education.
Members of this College pioneered developments in Scotland. In 1726, following a recommendation by the Incorporation of Surgeons, as it was then known, Edinburgh Town Council created the world’s first Chair of Midwifery, appointing the surgeon Joseph Gibson as Professor of Midwifery to the City. Interestingly, he appears to have only taught and issued licenses to women.
While Scottish obstetricians William Smellie and William Hunter led the British man-midwifery charge from London, Thomas Young, a Deacon of the Incorporation, deserves most credit for advancing the professional standing of the man-midwife in Scotland. Young became the first University Professor of Midwifery in Britain in 1756. For decades, his obstetrics course was considered to be the best in Britain and indeed Europe. (See Panel 2 to view the full diary of "Surgeon Accoucheur" Isaac Williamson, a student of Thomas Young).
Edinburgh held a somewhat unique position (outside of London) for offering clinical teaching to medical students, which was established in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in 1748. Young’s creation of a lying-in ward in the attic of the Royal Infirmary in 1756 enabled practical experience of deliveries.
Other notable 18th century man-midwives associated with this College include James Hamilton, an anatomy lecturer “much emploied in midwifery” around 1700 and Alexander Hamilton, who co-founded the Edinburgh Lying-in Hospital with his son James in 1793. This James Hamilton later became Professor of Midwifery and campaigned and succeeded in making midwifery a compulsory subject for a medical degree in 1833. The increase of university-educated obstetricians ensured the man-midwife now held an esteemed position in the medical community.
