Midwives Under Pressure
Episode 1
Midwives might be under pressure, caught between imperatives to care for a birthing woman and to answer to local authorities. In sixteenth century German towns, for example, midwives were told to report any suspicions they had about a woman who might have ended a pregnancy. Midwives were also instructed to interrogate unwed women about paternity during labor so that child support could be collected from the father.
Further Reading
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"'Their Negro Nanny was with Child By a white man’ : Gossip, Sex, and Slavery in an Eighteenth-Century New England Town"
Emily Jeannine Clark
The William and Mary Quarterly
Volume 79, Number 4, October 2022
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"The Midwives of South Germany and the Public/Private Dichotomy"
M. E. Wiesner
in The Art of Midwifery: Early Modern Midwives in Europe, ed. Hilary Marland, (London: Routledge, 1993), pp. 77-94.