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Full-Text Articles in Women's History
Single, Unwed, And Pregnant In Victorian London: Narratives Of Working Class Agency And Negotiation, Virginia L. Grimaldi
Single, Unwed, And Pregnant In Victorian London: Narratives Of Working Class Agency And Negotiation, Virginia L. Grimaldi
Madison Historical Review
Unmarried working women who got pregnant in Victorian London and were abandoned by the fathers were in a sticky situation. If a woman kept the baby, she would unlikely be able to provide for it, especially under the ‘Bastardly Act’ of the 1834 Poor Law, which deemed all illegitimate children under the sole responsibility of the mother. If she concealed her pregnancy and abandoned the child, or risked her life by having an illegal abortion, she would at best be held liable for infanticide, at worst, dead. One institutional option available to these vulnerable mothers was the London Foundling Hospital …
The Shifting Dynamics Of Midwifery In Urban Seventeenth-Century England, Virginia E. Taylor
The Shifting Dynamics Of Midwifery In Urban Seventeenth-Century England, Virginia E. Taylor
Masters Theses, 2010-2019
Midwives have been unfairly represented in contemporary studies about the profession in urban Early Modern England. Midwives were actually quite intelligent and capable women beyond their skills in the environs of the birthing chamber. These women contributed significantly to their surrounding community in public and private spheres from the birthing chamber to the courts of law. Most urban midwives were highly skilled and knowledgeable in their craft based upon their many years of hands-on education in comparison to the university and book-learned preparation of male-midwives or physicians. These trained women were also literate and openly defended their profession against the …