Man-midwifery exposed, or the danger and immorality of employing men in midwifery proved and the remedy for the evil found : addressed to the Society for the Suppression of Vice. / By John Stevens.

  • John Stevens
Date:
[1866]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Man-midwifery exposed, or the danger and immorality of employing men in midwifery proved and the remedy for the evil found : addressed to the Society for the Suppression of Vice. / By John Stevens. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    35/88 page 31
    have, and aU would be at all times well. Then no more would the infant, all torn and mangled, be From its mother's womb untimely ripped. Fourthly—L^^ her be attended by a matronly midwife ; a mother can sympathize with a mother's pangs ; and having gone through the natural trial herself, she could give that consolation and con- fidence man can never give. o , . , -r, Fifthly—L^i her embrace a knowledge of the simple Botanic Practice : let the midwife be weU versed in this, and a death in childbirth would be impossible, a difficult case scarcely ever be heard of, and in another generation we should have returned to the safety of ancient Greece, Eome, and Israel. CHAPTEE IV. We have seen, while tracing the History of Man-Midwiteey, it is of comparatively recent date, and that women have been sufficient in all ages and countries to perform all that is necessary in parturition. Has labor, then, become more difficult, or have females lost that instinctive knowledge with which^nature endowed our ancestors ? And has this departure from pristine purity been productive of good results ? We have seen that it has not. The important question then is, Who shall officiate in paeturition ? This is so well answered by Dr. Beach, the President of the Ee- formed College of New York, to which I have the honour to be- long, in his admirable work on Midwifery, that I cannot do better than avail myself of the knowledge given me, to quote from the work:— Who shall officiate in parturition ? In consequence of the practice -which prevails in the present day, this has become a grave question. The physician contends with much zeal that it is his province to officiate. Females, he alleges are incompetent, and these assertions of physicians have influenced the minds of females to such an extent, that they are forcibly impressed with the belief that there are no others competent; and when it is proposed to many women to employ a midwife, they appear to shrink with horror, and many even sup- pose that in trusting themselves to the most accomplished female accoucheur they jeopardize their lives. The confidence of females in the physician is so* great, that it is almost impossible to effect a reformation in the prevailino- practice in this respect. - -f o The physician takes it for granted, and even boasts, that if he can attend one smgle case of midwifery in a family, he has/or ewr a/V«>-secured their patronage ; so that both interest and prejudice operate as obstacles and barriers to any miprovement or change in the practice ; and although the most fearful consequences have, and are stiU daily occurring, modern females cling to this unnatural practice. Notwithstanding, however, the existence of the above obstacles, wo are woU assured, that lemales, if rightly qualified, are not only as fully capable as
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3