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Storytelling: The Narratology of
Women’s Medical Writing Ashleigh Blackwood
Northumbria University, UK
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Women’s Writing
GOD making woman of mans fleshe, that she might be purer then hee, doth evidently showe,
how far we women are more excellent then men. Our bodies are fruiteful, wherby the world encreaseth, and our care wonderful, by which
man is preserved.
Jane Anger, Her Protection for Women (1589)
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Female [email protected]
‘yet the holy Scriptures hath recorded Midwives to the perpetual honour of the female Sex. There being not so much as one word concerning Men-midwives mentioned there that we can find, it being the natural propriety of women to be much seeing into that Art: and though nature be not alone sufficient to the perfection of it, yet farther knowledge may be gain'd by a long and diligent practice, and be communicated to others of our own sex.’
Jane Sharp, The Midwives Book (1671)
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Maternal Textual [email protected]
litandmedicine.wordpress.comJohn William Waterhouse, Miranda – The Tempest, 1916
Case Studies
Louise Bourgeois Boursier
French Court Midwife to Marie de Medici
1609, 1617, 1626, 1634
Justine Siegemund
Midwife to the Electoress of Brandenburg, Germany
1694
Sarah Stone
English Midwife,Bristol and London, England
1737
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‘Sage-femme a la Royne’
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‘la premiere femme de mon art qui mette le plume en main’
Instruction à ma fille Published 1617
Louyse Bourgeois
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Above all things you must beware (for any treasure in the world) of adhering to one vice, such as they are guilty of who give Remedies to cause abortion: for those that do ill. And those that seek a damnable remedy, are wicked in a high degree. But it is a higher degree of wickedness for those that are no way ingaged in the business, for lucres sake to kil both the body and soul of an infant.
Louyse Bourgeois, Instruction à Ma Fille (1617)
Instruction à ma fille
To this purpose shal I tel thee Daughter, that being called to the Labour of a friend where were none but two or three of her acquaintance, they asked me what I thought of the labour: to which I answered, that the child did not come wel, but that I would do the work with the assistance of God without danger to the child or to the Mother.
Bourgeois (1617)
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The Court Midwife
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CHRISTINA: Dear sister, pray, give me a thorough account of difficult births and the avoidance thereof where possible, as well as of deft turning of children who lie wrong. Can a midwife help laboring in these unnatural cases, which occur so often?
JUSTINA: Yes, she can help in certain ways, namely, if she is intelligent, has attended sundry births, and has a skilled hand.
CHRISTINA: I know you have many years’ experience, so I ask you once again to share your knowledge with me, to honour God and benefit your neighbour.
JUSTINA: Very gladly. Just show me what you desire and what you are especially eager to know.
Justine Siegemund, The Court Midwife, ed. Lynne Tatlock (1690)(2005)
Female Author-Practitioner
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It was easy for me to get a quill and paper, and I had in my head a supply of observations from my experience. So when I had an idle moment, I wrote down something without thinking that this should be a book for the world. Instead I wrote up this and that complication for myself so that I could keep from forgetting them and so I could speak with others more knowledgably, especially because I often heard both midwives and wise women speaking in such an unfounded manner of various complications.
Siegemund, (1690) (2005)
Sarah Stone
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It is a secret I would willingly have made known for the benefit of my Sisters in the Profession: But having a Daughter that has practised the same Art these ten years, with as good success as my self, I shall leave it in her power to make it known.
Sarah Stone, A Complete Practice of Midwifery (1737)
