This paper explores how tales of difficult births found in medieval miracle narratives can contribute to our understanding of the experience of pregnancy and childbirth in twelfth-century England.
The ‘Miracle of Childbirth’: The Portrayal of Parturient Women in Medieval Miracle Narratives
November 4, 2015 By
Performative Rituals for Conception and Childbirth in England, 900–1500
September 24, 2015 By
This study proposes that performative rituals—that is, verbal and physical acts that reiterate prior uses—enabled medieval women and men to negotiate the dangers and difficulties of conception and childbirth.
Do evolutionary perspectives of morning sickness and meat aversions apply to large-scale societies? : an examination of medieval Christian women
August 3, 2014 By
Through an investigation of staple diets, religious dietary views, medical literature, and wives’ tales of medieval Christian women, aversions to animal flesh and animal products among pregnant women do not appear to be supported
‘Sadly and with a Bitter Heart’: What the Caesarean Section Meant in the Middle Ages
May 30, 2014 By
The article presents a unique historical document, a notarized act of 1473 drawn up for a Provençal barber surgeon commissioned to extract a fetus from a corpse
She Shall Be Saved in Childbearing: Submission,Contemplation of Conception, and Annunciation Imagery in the Books of Hours of Two Late Medieval Noblewomen
April 9, 2014 By
In this piece, I suggest that such books were also constructed with the intention of instilling certain virtues within the young and newly-married woman—namely, submission and a humble desire for motherhood.
Childbirth Miracles in Swedish Medieval Miracle Collections
April 2, 2014 By
The chance of dying in pregnancy or childbirth was very real for medieval women, and still is in many Third World countries. In Medieval Catholic Western Europe, including Scandinavia, these risks, and the absence of medically schooled persons who could give efficient help, led many women to turn to the saints for intercession.
Cold and Wet, Hot and Dry: The Knowing of Woman’s Kind in Childing
March 19, 2014 By
The Knowing of Woman’s Kind in Childing is an important and significant medieval medical text because it has a self-identified female audience and a female-orientated medical focus.
Oh, Baby!
February 20, 2014 By
Like most things in the Middle Ages, the process of giving birth was mired in both superstition and religion.
The Significance of Twins in Medieval and Early Modern Europe
January 4, 2014 By
But supposing you are lucky, having run the gauntlet of twin birth, its association with sickness and the unnatural, and we see mother and children survive. What then, what status was given to twins?
Theodora, Aetius of Amida, and Procopius: Some Possible Connections
December 29, 2013 By
Behind the purported facts of Theodora’s career as a common prostitute and later as empress are the hidden details of what we might call feminine pharmacology: what were the drugs used by prostitutes and call-girls in sixth-century Byzan- tium? Were there ordinary pharmaceuticals employed by such professionals to stay in business?
Birth Control and Abortion in the Middle Ages
December 2, 2013 By
The medieval period might be unique in that it is perhaps the only time when you can read the same author in one work condemning the use of birth control and in another giving directions on how to use it.
Midwives as Agents of Social Control: Ecclesiastical and Municipal Regulation of Midwifery in the Late Middle Ages
November 17, 2013 By
Rather than the oft-claimed argument that midwifery regulation occurred as a result of midwives’ ignorance and lack of skill, both ecclesiastical and secular authorities in fact used midwives to their advantage to harness the ‘tremendous social power of medicine’.
Abortions in Byzantine times (325-1453 AD)
July 18, 2013 By
All legislation of Byzantium from the earliest times also condemned abortions. Consequently, foeticide was considered equal to murder and infanticide and the result was severe punishments for all persons who participated in an abortive technique reliant on drugs or other methods. The punishments could extend to exile, confiscation of property and death.
Reconsidering obstetric death and female fertility in Anglo-Saxon England
June 29, 2013 By
Little has been written about female fertility and maternal mortality from an archaeological perspective.
Neonatal care and breastfeeding in medieval Persian literature
June 18, 2013 By
The present article is a review of the Jorjani’s teachings on the neonatal care, breastfeeding, weaning and teething along with comparisons between the Treasure and modern medicine in this regard.
Medieval Obstetrics, or How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Womb
March 5, 2013 By
The practice of gynecology was a unique brand of medicine, which drew stark boundaries based on gender of both practitioner and patient. Midwives were responsible for the treatment of feminine maladies and the care of expectant mothers.
En/gendering representations of childbirth in fifteenth-century Franco-Flemish devotional manuscripts
January 27, 2013 By
Late-medieval representationsof the births of holy and heroic children invariably show a domestic interior with the new mother lying in bed attended
by female assistants.These images thus appearto show a `genderedspace’ in which women cared for each other and from which men were marginalized.
Fruit of the Womb: Prenatal Food in Renaissance Italy
August 26, 2012 By
One of the crucial tenants of humoral theory is the belief that females are of a colder and wetter disposition than the hotter, drier nature of males. To achieve optimal health the humors needed to be in perfect balance, as seen in all recommendations for food, drink, preparation and even environment.
The Rooster‘s Egg: Maternal Metaphors and Medieval Men
August 15, 2012 By
This dissertation will explore the symbolism surrounding women‘s bodies, particularly menstruating, lactating, and pregnant bodies, which concerned theologians, moralists, and medical writers alike.
Research examines the ‘abortionist saints’ of medieval Ireland
June 7, 2012 By
A recent article on sexuality and childbirth in early medieval Ireland reveals some surprising attitudes towards abortion held among the Christians during this period, and that hagiographical texts recount four Irish saints performing abortions.
Flowers for the Book-binder’s Wife: An Investigation of Florilegia and Early Modern Women’s Writing
April 22, 2012 By
To an early modern, nothing could be fully learned through a “hands off” approach. Heidi Brayman Hackel corroborates this with her book, Reading Material. Critical to early modern thoughts on comprehension was “taking note,” a phrasing that carried the double implication of both noticing and annotating…
Childbirth Prayers in Medieval and Early Modern England: “For drede of perle that may be-falle”
March 25, 2012 By
Childbirth prayers and rituals from the medieval period and early modern era shall be analyzed and compared with childbirth prayers and rituals in post-Reformation England.
The art of medicine: Midwives and obstetric catastrophe: retrieving the past
March 11, 2012 By
For the historian, however, and for any healer with an eye for the human dimensions of medicine, the story has just begun. For Floreta is, in fact, the first known European midwife to be put on trial for the death of a mother in childbirth. Indeed, she is charged not with simple medical negligence, but with premeditated murder.
Fossils as Drugs: pharmaceutical palaeontology
January 8, 2012 By
The present paper surveys the medicinal applications of a number of fossils which were well known in classical, mediaeval and renaissance times….
“To all grave and modest matrons”: Practical Midwifery and Chirurgery in De conceptu et generatione hominis (1580)
November 28, 2011 By
If previous manuscripts offered helpful remedies to soothe women’s suffering, these new works studied reproduction for theoretical gain, not practical application.
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