Today we think of childbirth as a medical procedure, yet until the 18th century it was a community-focused social and ritualistic event, with the management of births controlled by women and the lying-in chamber a female-only space. Present in the birthing chamber was a small group of the expectant mother’s friends, family or neighbours, collectively known as a gossip. It was the role of gossips to prepare the birthing chamber, provide comfort to the labouring woman and prepare the ‘caudle’ - a warm, alcoholic brew consumed by the mother as a restorative potion and by the birth attendants to ‘wet the baby’s head’.
Men were routinely banished from the birthing chamber, although a surgeon may have attended during emergency situations requiring intervention with instruments.
The entire process was steeped in superstition and ceremony, from the preceding lying-in period until after birth. Although customs would vary by country and region, the use of charms was widespread practice. For example, an eagle-stone tied to a labouring woman’s thigh was believed to hasten the birth, or a silver rattle with coral would be gifted to protect a child from disease. Much folk practice centred around safeguarding against supernatural forces and a belief that faeries may abduct and substitute an unbaptised baby with a ‘changeling’.
Part of a midwife’s role was adherence to such superstitions, and she was perceived to be particularly skilled in halting exchanges with evil spirits; she might for instance sprinkle urine on the labouring woman to ward off faeries. In the birth chamber midwives had considerable responsibility in addition to the routine tasks of delivery and they were occasionally even empowered to undertake baptisms, especially if the mother or baby’s life was in danger.
There was no kind of professional regulation that we would recognise today, and these female practitioners were mostly trained by family, friends or an experienced midwife. Nevertheless, many midwives held power and respect in their communities.
