Authority, Gender, and Midwifery in Early Modern Italy: Contested Deliveries

The book Authority, Gender, and Midwifery in Early Modern Italy: Contested Deliveries explores attempts by church, state, and medical authorities to regulate and professionalize the practice of midwifery in Italy from the late sixteenth to the late eighteenth century. It argues that new institutional spaces to care for pregnant women and educate midwives were not strictly medical developments but rather socio-political responses to long-standing concerns about honor, shame, and illegitimacy. It will be of interest to scholars of the history of medicine, religious history, social history, and Early Modern Italy.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 236 pages
Publication date: 29 April 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Authority, Gender, and Midwifery in Early Modern Italy: Contested Deliveries delves into the endeavors of church, state, and medical authorities to regulate and professionalize the practice of midwifery in Italy from the late sixteenth to the late eighteenth century. During this period, medical writers dedicated extensive pages to exploring the secrets of women's sexuality and the processes of generation. By the eighteenth century, male practitioners in Britain and France had successfully established careers as male midwives. However, female midwives continued to oversee the vast majority of all early modern births. An examination of developments in Italy, where male practitioners never gained significant footholds in childbirth, highlights the intricate social, religious, and political contexts that shaped the management of reproduction in early modern Europe.

Authority, Gender, and Midwifery in Early Modern Italy contends that the establishment of new institutional spaces to care for pregnant women and educate midwives in Italy during the eighteenth century was not solely a medical advancement but rather a socio-political response to longstanding concerns about honor, shame, and illegitimacy, as well as contemporary apprehensions about population growth and productivity. By doing so, this book complicates our understanding of these sites, situating them within a broader genealogy of institutional spaces in Italy designed to regulate sexual morality and protect female honor.

This book will be of interest to scholars of the history of medicine, religious history, social history, and Early Modern Italy.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367520236