THE MEDIEVAL GUIDE TO CHILDBIRTH

Call the midwife

As labour pains kicked in, many medieval women leant on the expertise of experienced professionals

Childbirth in the Middle Ages was a community effort. Family members, parish priests and local experts all lent a hand – and when midwives were called in to assist, they often worked in teams. A late 12th-century English account describes the presence of seven midwives at the labour of Eliza of Middleton. Such a large team could pool their knowledge and share the demanding tasks involved in assisting the delivery.

These women could find their services called upon in all kinds of circumstances. In 1259 in the French village of Saint-Saëns, two local midwives attended the nun Nicola of Rouen, who gave birth inside her nunnery. Nicola’s child was baptised, probably by a priest at the monastery, although midwives were themselves empowered to perform baptism in cases where the child’s soul was in peril.

Midwives were expected to be moral arbiters, looking out for instances of illegitimacy – no doubt the case for Nicola’s baby – and infanticide. At the same time, their own conduct came under scrutiny. In 1481 the English midwife Agnes Marshall was accused of using quasi-magical