And at the time this was happening in the real world, doctors still really knew nest to nothing, whereas midwives had a boatload of traditional knowledge. Doctors waged a cultural smear campaign with huge amounts of racism showing a filthy poor black woman midwife asking if they wanted that woman touching their child as well as a legal campaign to make midwifing without a medical license illegal. This of course was at the time that docs still believed in hysteria caused by uterine malfunction. -- I agree with all this. However I'm a bit curious about this.
-Maternal and infant mortality soared. -
The first professionalization for midwifery took place around the 18th century, with a second wave around the early 1800. The earliest remotely reliable data I can find for infant mortality is around 1850 (http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/haines.demography). Which doesn't mean anything, it's not my area of expertise, but I'd love to look at the data from earlier. Any chance you could direct me to where I could find it?
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branchandroot
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Date: 2010-11-30 03:08 pm (UTC)--
I agree with all this. However I'm a bit curious about this.
-Maternal and infant mortality soared. -
The first professionalization for midwifery took place around the 18th century, with a second wave around the early 1800. The earliest remotely reliable data I can find for infant mortality is around 1850 (http://eh.net/encyclopedia/article/haines.demography). Which doesn't mean anything, it's not my area of expertise, but I'd love to look at the data from earlier. Any chance you could direct me to where I could find it?