Childbirth in Ancient Greece: Myths, Midwives, and Mortality

1. Lecture 4: Childbirth CLAS3051

2. Nature of Our Evidence? • Written • Soranus' Gynaecology • What problems does this present us with? • Myths, tragedies, comedies • Oblique references in, e.g., Plato • Images

3. Midwives • From tomb of Scribona Attice, midwife at Ostia, port of Rome • Freedwomen, or daughters of Freedmen • Not a citizen's calling

4. Requirement • Start early? Poblicia Aphe, obstetrix, dead at age twenty-one • A suitable person will be literate, with her wits about her, possessed of a good memory, loving work, respectable and generally not unduly handicapped as regards her senses [i.e., sight, smell, hearing], sound of limb, robust, and, according to some people, endowed with long slim fingers and short nails at her fingertips. Soranus

5. Superstitious Midwives? • Should “be free from superstitions so as not to overlook what is expedient on account of a dream or omen or customary ritual or popular superstition” Soranus Gyn. 1.3-4 in Garland 62-63

6. Distinction • Law codices of late Roman period: • Slave doctors and midwives of equal value • Midwives have access to same arbitration as doctors • In birth contract 40 drachmae left for emergency, portion for midwife • In East sometimes became 'gynocologists', wrote essays (not surviving)‏

7. Midwifery in Ancient Greece • Less 'professionalized'? • Collective wisdom of local women • four or so other women also in attendance

8. Socrates as Midwife • Theaetetus: I can assure you, Socrates, that I have tried very often, . . . but I cannot shake off a feeling of anxiety. • Socrates: These are the pangs of labor, my dear Theaetetus, you have something within you which you are bringing to birth. And have you never heard, . . . that I am the son of a midwife ... and that I myself practice midwifery? • Theaetetus: No, never.

9. Infant Mortality • How do we assess?

10. Retrojection of Modern Rates • Perinatal infant mortality of ?8% • 10 – 20% mortality among women (Garland 65)‏ • 5 out of 20,000 mortality among women (French, V. Helios 1986)‏

11. Deities of Childbirth • From pediment of Parthenon? • Eileithyia = “she who comes” • Artemis, too

12. Hippocratic Labour • “The child by the spasmodic movements of its hands and feet breaks one of the internal membranes ... it forces a wide passage for itself through the womb .... It advances head first – that is the natural position, since its weight measured from above the navel is greater than it is below.” Nature of the Child

13. The Birthing Chair or Stool • This a 19th century example • couches and dining benches also used • softening with oils, etc.

14. Testing the Child • bathed in wine Plut. Lycurgus Soranus • Process of acceptance

15. Difficult Pregnancies • Transverse: deal with through palpitation • Tongs not commonly used in live birth • Stillbirths a major hazard • Description on G 76-77 relates considerable skill • Hippocratic text On the Cutting Up of the Embryo • Suppositious children?

16. Unusual Births • Seen as portentous • Relating displeasure of gods • Not necessarily moral transgression or wrongdoing of the individual • Pollution of the community

17. Oath of Athenian Ephebes (Cadets)‏ • “If I remain faithful to the inscribed oath, may women give birth to children who resemble their parents. If not, may they give birth to monsters” (Tod II 204.39-45 in G 79).

18. Parmenides: Rationalist Explanations • Garland p. 80 • What is typical of this passage?

19. Exposure • Form of population control • Different conception of personhood, parenthood • Illegitimate children, children of slaves, we assume • Sickly and deformed children • Girls • Most of Greece decision of father, Sparta, Rome the state

20. Attitudes? • Golden: “co-exist with care of and affection for children” just as abortion today • Tragedies suggest undercurrent of anxiety, perhaps • Exposure not killing: put in care of gods

21. Rituals of Acceptance • Amphidromia = “running around” • Around hearth • Dekate ('tenth day' ceremony)‏ • Naming takes place on this occasion • Widening circle of acceptance • Hedging against infant mortality?