Originally published in 1977 and as a second edition in 1988, this book introduces the reader to the women at the top of the midwifery profession up until the 1

In England in the seventeenth century, childbirth was the province of women. The midwife ran the birth, helped by female "gossips"; men, including the doctors o

This work supplied English midwives and English women with a compendium of information for the Continent and from the author's own thirty years of experience.

Drawn from sixteenth to nineteenth century records to create an account of the midwife's status, duties, and skills, the author goes on to describe the developm