ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

In Women’s Hands: The Reform of the Art of Midwifery from Basque Archives, 1750-1830

• In Event: Fertility and the Sexed Body: Midwifery and Childbirth

English Abstract

During the eighteenth century, Europe witnessed a comprehensive reform of medical and welfare institutions. This process, common across the continent, was driven by the political authorities’ desire not only to wield but also to possess increasingly greater control over the bodies of their subjects. Thus, guided by populationist principles and supported by Enlightenment ideas, the aim was to shape healthy and civilized bodies that would be useful to the State.
The objective of this paper is to present the reform of the art of midwifery based on an exhaustive study of municipal archives from the Basque Country. Although the emergence of the man-midwife figure, as well as the gradual replacement of traditional midwives, has attracted the attention of both historians and healthcare professionals, an analysis of this process from a local perspective remains to be undertaken.
Therefore, and seeking to connect with recent lines of research that highlight the complexity of this medical shift, my presentation aims to compare primary sources with the legislative, moral, and medical discourses of the time in order to offer a more accurate overview of the historical narrative.

Author

• Leire Pérez Santacara, University of the Basque Country