Childbirth and Obstetrics in Antiquity

Childbirth And Obstetrics In Antiquity

Childbirth and obstetrics in Classical Antiquity were studied by the physicians of ancient Greece and Rome, who established ideas and practices that endured in Western medicine for centuries. Gynecology and obstetrics were originally studied and taught mainly by midwives in the ancient world, but eventually also by scholarly physicians of both sexes, who wrote works setting the foundation of the later European study of obstetrics. Obstetrics is traditionally defined as the surgical specialty dealing with the care of a woman and her offspring during pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium (recovery). In Classical Antiquity (here meaning the ancient Greco-Roman world), surgical intervention did not exist. Without the presence of surgical technology an alternative was necessary. In 2nd century CE, physician Soranus wrote a text on gynecology describing the occupation of the midwife.

Midwifery and obstetrics are distinctly different but overlap in medical practice that focuses on pregnancy and labor. Midwifery emphasizes the normality of pregnancy along with the reproductive process. Classical Antiquity saw the beginning of attempts to classify various areas of medical research, and the terms gynecology and obstetrics came into use. The Hippocratic Gynaecea (Diseases of Women) was written in two volumes, part of the larger Hippocratic Corpus collection of medical literature influenced by Hippocrates.