Notes on period obstetrics
Nov. 19th, 2008 02:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyjadwigaThe first recorded case of a C-Section operation survived by the mother appears to have been in Germany in 1500, performed by the desperate father-- Jacob Nufer, a pig gelder.
Rectovaginal fistulas (which is one of the complications that episiotomies were developed to combat) were common and long-term complications of birth in the 19th century. Between 1845 and 1850, James Marion Sims came up with a speculum that allowed repairs to be made and perfected a method by operating on a number of African-American slave women who had such fistulas. He later made his fortune performing the surgery on upper-class women who also demanded the now-fashionable anesthesia for the operation.
The 16th century Rosegarden for Pregnant Women and Midwives recommends that overweight women deliver in a hands and knees position that is widely mentioned in the current delivery/midwifery literature as a method for reducing shoulder dystochia (where the child is trapped in the birth canal because the posterior shoulder cannot be delivered). This manuever, however, is not easily executed in a modern standard delivery room due to the presence of monitoring equipment.
Rectovaginal fistulas (which is one of the complications that episiotomies were developed to combat) were common and long-term complications of birth in the 19th century. Between 1845 and 1850, James Marion Sims came up with a speculum that allowed repairs to be made and perfected a method by operating on a number of African-American slave women who had such fistulas. He later made his fortune performing the surgery on upper-class women who also demanded the now-fashionable anesthesia for the operation.
The 16th century Rosegarden for Pregnant Women and Midwives recommends that overweight women deliver in a hands and knees position that is widely mentioned in the current delivery/midwifery literature as a method for reducing shoulder dystochia (where the child is trapped in the birth canal because the posterior shoulder cannot be delivered). This manuever, however, is not easily executed in a modern standard delivery room due to the presence of monitoring equipment.
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Date: 2008-11-19 09:54 pm (UTC)Slowly, slowly the culture is able to drag the process of giving birth back to a more sensible state of affairs. Slowly.
PS: A number of friends have pointed me towards a film called The Business of Being Born in recent weeks. I haven't watched it yet, but if you have a chance I suspect you should.