Tending mothers and the fruits of the womb : the work of the midwife in the early modern German city / by Gabrielle Robilliard.

Stuttgart : Frank Steiner Verlag, 2017.

309 pages : black and white illustrations, map ; 24 cm.

Based on the author's thesis (doctoral)--University of Warwick, 2011.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [285]-303) and indexes.

List of figures and tables -- Acknowledgements -- Glossary of German and medical terms -- Introduction -- Midwifery in leipzig -- Histories of midwifery -- Midwifery and enlightenment -- Time and place : leipzig, 1650-1810 -- Sources -- Overview -- Midwifery, the city and the state between tradition and reform -- Regulating midwifery from the middle ages to the reformation -- From oath to instruction : midwifery regulation in Leipzig -- Midwifery and the state -- Reforming midwifery in Leipzig, c. 1650-1740 -- Conclusions -- The midwifery landscape -- Sworn midwives -- Beifrauen (sworn apprentices) -- Wickelweiber (swaddling women) -- Gassenmagde (female street servants) -- Healers and nurses -- Appointing midwives -- The changing structure of the midwifery landscape -- Life-cycle, the household oeconomy and the meaning of midwifery work -- The data -- Age : the demise of maturity -- Marriage and motherhood : from matron to working mother -- Socio-economic milieus : the artisan midwife -- Midwifery, family and household -- Midwifery and the household oeconomy : the forces of poverty -- Midwifery as a family tradition -- The social and ideological meaning of midwifery -- Conclusions -- The moral economy of midwifery -- The moral economy as a dialogue -- Encroachment and the moral economy of early modern work -- Patterns of encroachment -- Conclusions -- Midwives, clients and trust -- The social and geographical patterns of client networks -- Midwifery : a matter of trust -- Mistrust : midwives, illegitimacy and infanticide -- Defending a clientele, defining a client -- Conclusions -- Midwives, medical men and clients : demarcating the parameters of midwifery practice -- Defining midwifery in medical discourses -- Childbed maladies and childbed practitioners : the parameters of midwifery practice -- Midwives, accoucheurs and the power of the 'patient' -- The practice of municipal man-midwifery -- 'Natural' and 'unnatural' births -- Turning point? booking the accoucheur -- Conclusions -- The 'difficult birth' of clinical midwifery -- Maternity hospitals in Germany and Europe -- The stadtaccoucheur plans a 'hebammeninstitut' -- Midwifery in the lazarette -- Renewing plans for a 'hebammeninstitut' -- The triersches institut -- Conclusions -- Conclusion -- Appendices -- Bibliography -- Indices.