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The ‘Miracle of Childbirth’: The Portrayal of Parturient Women in Medieval Miracle Narratives

Medievalists.net — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 03:04:38 +0000

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.

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Performative Rituals for Conception and Childbirth in England, 900–1500

Medievalists.net — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 05:07:23 +0000

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.

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Do evolutionary perspectives of morning sickness and meat aversions apply to large-scale societies? : an examination of medieval Christian women

Medievalists.net — Sun, 03 Aug 2014 21:53:48 +0000

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

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‘Sadly and with a Bitter Heart’: What the Caesarean Section Meant in the Middle Ages

Medievalists.net — Fri, 30 May 2014 19:50:23 +0000

The article presents a unique historical document, a notarized act of 1473 drawn up for a Provençal barber surgeon commissioned to extract a fetus from a corpse

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She Shall Be Saved in Childbearing: Submission,Contemplation of Conception, and Annunciation Imagery in the Books of Hours of Two Late Medieval Noblewomen

Medievalists.net — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 20:59:25 +0000

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.

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Childbirth Miracles in Swedish Medieval Miracle Collections

Medievalists.net — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 15:40:40 +0000

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.

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Cold and Wet, Hot and Dry: The Knowing of Woman’s Kind in Childing

Medievalists.net — Wed, 19 Mar 2014 06:04:38 +0000

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.

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Oh, Baby!

Medievalists.net — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 13:52:02 +0000

Like most things in the Middle Ages, the process of giving birth was mired in both superstition and religion.

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The Significance of Twins in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Medievalists.net — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 01:31:23 +0000

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?

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Theodora, Aetius of Amida, and Procopius: Some Possible Connections

Medievalists.net — Sun, 29 Dec 2013 13:52:37 +0000

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?

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