A "man-midwife" (male obstetrician) represented by a figure divided in half, one half representing a man and the other a woman. Coloured etching by I. Cruikshank, 1793
Image credit: Wellcome Collection
| Date | 1793 |
|---|---|
| Location | London |
| Description |
While it became a fashionable option to call upon a more qualified, skilled and knowledgeable man-midwife as a birthing attendant, of course, there was significant push-back. Female practitioners resented a male invasion of their workplace and their arguments often centred on a reliance on surgical instruments. Birthing women were likewise suspicious, either through fear of the ‘butcher surgeon’ of popular imagination , or concern for protecting their modesty. Contemporary satirists and had a field day mocking the new male accoucheurs, with the most famous example being caricaturist Isaac Cruikshank’s hybrid illustration, “A Man-Midwife or a newly discovered animal…”. This depicts a split male-female midwife; the gentleman in his surgery wielding and surrounded by menacing obstetrical instruments, and by contrast, the woman situated in a traditional warm, domestic setting, holding something altogether less threatening, a feeding cup. |
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