The Office of Midwife – Some Historical Background

Women have helped each other in childbirth from time immemorial; indeed, until relatively recently such attendance remained a female domain in which men very rarely played a part. Generally the midwife was the senior woman in the community, commonly a married woman or widow who had herself given birth. With the gradual development of towns and cities came the specialisation of occupations, including midwifery, and with this the professional midwife. These women would acquire their skills over years as apprentices to older midwives; indeed, in her Complete Practice of Midwifery (1737) the West Country midwife Sarah Stone stresses how essential were her three years spent as ‘deputy’ to her mother to the practice of her art,