Midwifery in early modern Germany, 1650-1810

This thesis explores the occupational structure and culture of urban midwifery practice in early modern Germany between 1650 and 1810. Following the Thirty Years War many larger cities began to reform midwifery provision. They were motivated partly by depopulation anxieties and partly by burgeoning civic confidence and prosperity. In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century the Leipzig Council began to appoint midwife apprentices, introduced a municipal obstetrician (Stadtaccoucheur) to supervise its licensed midwives and carry out difficult operative deliveries, and began to provide its midwives with formal anatomical and obstetric instruction through the new Stadtaccoucheur. Drawing on municipal council records in the city of Leipzig, this thesis traces the varieties and forms of midwifery practice that existed within the urban setting and examines the impact of these reforms on the traditional culture of urban midwifery. It explores the structure of formal and informal midwifery, the socioeconomic and life cycle of midwives, client networks and the way in which midwives demarcated their occupational territory amongst themselves and with other practitioners. This thesis argues that these reforms were not driven by the state but were rather motivated by the Leipzig Council, the citizenry and midwives themselves. Moreover, these reforms served to reinforce rather than change the existing occupational structure and culture of urban midwifery in Leipzig, which was grounded in the moral economy of livelihood