4 ms·
I found article a bit naive. 99% midwifes in 17th century were functionally illiterate (only read to recite in church) and had no access to medical books. Their
by t344344 4y ago
I found article a bit naive. 99% midwifes in 17th century were functionally illiterate (only read to recite in church) and had no access to medical books. Their skills came from veterinary practice, delivering cows, horses, pigs, dogs, kittens and so on. It was all very practical and pragmatic. Reading was used for prayers.
Pictures used on books were more for esoteric and philosophical use. Thats why babies had head proportional sized to adults. Every moron knew babies had large heads compared to their bodies.
- starkd 4y agoSome of those images showed the infant with surprising muscle definition. With those arms, it looked like that baby was about to deliver himself.
- giraffe_lady 4y agoI can't imagine these illustrations were made by or even in consultation with midwives either. The midwives possibly did have fairly sophisticated models for understanding and evaluation of things like fetal position but they probably would have depicted them differently and I doubt anyone asked them.