Les sages-femmes modernes en Allemagne

Modern German Midwifery, 1885-1960 

Lynne Fallwell



Series: Studies for the Society for the Social History of Medicine
Hardcover: 263 pages
Publisher: Pickering & Chatto Ltd; 1 edition (March 30, 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1848934289

Between the late eighteenth and the early twentieth century, the industrialized world experienced a transition in birth practices from the ‘wise woman’ midwife to the male medical specialist. While in many countries this gendered struggle led to a separation of midwifery from the rest of modern medicine, in Germany midwives took an active role in the transition from traditional practice to modern institutionalized health care. By finding an organized voice and working towards professionalization, they helped protect their essential role in childbirth. Fallwell explores this transition and sets it in its wider historical context, including the role of print culture and the changes that occurred before, during and after the Nazi regime.