Advice Concerning Pregnancy and Health in Late Medieval Europe: Peasant Women’s Wisdom in The Distaff Gospels
Of the more than 200 pieces of advice contained in The Distaff Gospels, a mid-15th-century Old French collection of women’s lore recently available for the first time in modern English, almost half concern aspects of health: pregnancy, predicting the sex of the foetus and ensuring the future wellbeing of the child, as well as practices to avoid sickness and cures for various ailments.
The Purification of Women after Childbirth: A Window onto Medieval Perceptions of Women
In the second quarter of the thirteenth century Bishop Roger Niger found it necessary to issue a statute in the archdeaconry of London regarding the rite known as the Purification of Women after Childbirth, more commonly spoken of today as churching.
Medieval Women’s Guides to Food during Pregnancy: Origins, Texts and Traditions
The dietary guidelines contained in medieval Arabic, Latin, and vernacular pregnancy-regimens are analyzed and their origins explored.