This article offers, in the first place, an overview on women's healthcare in relation to childbirth in ancient Mesopotamia, as an introduction that helps to evaluate the meaning of the 7th century Assur text BAM 248 within therapeutic cuneiform texts on childbirth. We proceed to analyse the variety of therapeutic approaches to childbirth present in BAM 248, which brings together various healin...

Data sources Studies were identified by searching (through February 1999) the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organization of Care Special Register (which includes searches of MEDLINE [from 1966], EMBASE/Excerpta Medica [from 1980], HealthSTAR [from 1975], and the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register [from 1996]), previous systematic reviews, and the Health Care Quality Improvement Projects data...