Tag: midwives
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Justine Siegemund, opening doorways to midwifery
Mariel Tishma Chicago, Illinois, United States Portrait of Justine Siegemund by Georg Paul Busch. 1690-1756 (circa). © The Trustees of the British Museum CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 In the mid-1600s, midwife Justine Siegemund was a household name for mothers in Silesia, part of modern-day Poland. She served patients of every class in Legnica, in Berlin, and…
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Labor of love
Mary Oak Seattle, Washington, USA “Newborn and Mama” Photo by Susan Strohm. Each week my elderly father and I watch babies being born. In the silver-shadowed flickers of a television, we sit as we often did in my childhood. Now in the spectral shade of his decelerated years, I care for him. He spends…
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Changes in childbirth in the United States: 1750–1950
Laura Kaplan New York, New York, United States American pioneer birth scene, 1887 Gustave Joseph Witkowski Wood print From Histoire des accouchements chez tous les peuples For most of American history, pregnancy, labor and delivery, and post-partum have been dangerous periods for mother and child. However, starting slowly in the late 18th century and…