Childbirth and Obstetrics in Antiquity - Midwifery

Midwifery

Midwifery flourished in ancient civilizations, including Egypt, Byzantium, Mesopotamia, and the Mediterranean empires of Greece and Rome. During Classical Antiquity, the professionalization of medicine began to challenge the domination of this area by women. There were also male physicians who recognized a role for women health practitioners; Herophilus wrote a manual for midwives, an advance for midwifery's status. This was followed by the work of the Greek Soranus of Ephesus, who was widely translated into Latin, and Galen. This Greco-Roman approach differs greatly from other ancient civilizations, where women's role as medical specialists concerning gynecology and obstetrics was apparently unquestioned. Medical schools attached to temples in ancient Egypt were numerous, including well-known medical schools for women at Heliopolis and Sais, where women are also believed to have been the professors.

Soranus of Ephesus states that for a woman to be an eligible midwife she must be

A suitable person…must be literate to be able to comprehend the art through theory too. She must have her wits about her so that she may easily follow what is said and what is happening. She must have a good memory to retain the imparted instructions (for knowledge arises from memory of what has been grasped). She must love work, to preserve through all vicissitudes (for a woman who wishes to acquire such vast knowledge needs manly patience).

The most qualified midwife would be trained in all branches of therapy. She should be able to prescribe hygienic regulations for her patients, observe the general and individual features of the case, give advice by recalling from previous knowledge what medical decisions would work in every case and to be reassuring to her patients. It is not necessary for her to have had a child to deliver another woman’s child, but it is good if she has been in labor to enhance sympathy with the mother.

To obtain good midwifery habits, she will be well disciplined and always sober, have a quiet disposition sharing many life secrets, must not be greedy for money, be free of superstition to not overlook salutary measures, keeping her hands soft by staying away from wool-working as this may harden her hands and use ointments to acquire softness. She too needs to be respectable, the people of the household will have to trust her within their household, may not be handicapped in the performance of her work. Long and slim fingers with short nails are necessary to touch deep-lying inflammation without causing too much pain. Midwives that acquire of all these will be the best midwives.