18th Century Mexican Midwives
Mary Fissell talks with Gaby Baez, a scholar who has studied midwives in eighteenth century Mexico. By mining Inquisition records, Baez has found stories about indigenous midwives, often illiterate, who would otherwise be invisible to history. These women knew powerful plant remedies and fought to claim a space in a busy medical marketplace. Powerful, yet sometimes feared, these women played key roles in maternal health.
Further Reading
Gonzales, Ptrisia. Red Medicine: Traditional Indigenous Rites of Birthing and Healing, (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2012).
Jaffary, Nora E. Reproduction and Its Discontents in Mexico. Childbirth and Contraception from 1750 to 1905, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2016).
Polanco, Edward Anthony. Healing Like Our Ancestors. The Nahua Tiçitl, Gender, and Settler Colonialism in Central Mexico, 1535–1660, (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2024).