‘A Fat, Pompous Old Woman, Ignorant, and Illiterate’ 1

Abstract

The writings of William Wilde and William Carleton provide a mechanism for exploring popular midwifery prejudices and practices in Ireland in the period before the Great Famine, 1845–1852. Most births occurred at home, assisted by traditional midwives who were unregulated and lacked professional training and qualifications. Irish medical practitioners were extremely critical of these empiricists, denouncing them regularly as ignorant, drunken, and dangerously incompetent. Despite repeated strictures by medical professionals, many of these women were experienced and skilful, often the beneficiaries of advice and knowledge handed down from one generation to the next in their own families. The customs and observances of the peasantry and the urban poor in relation to childbirth proved remarkably durable, persisting into the opening decades of the twentieth century. This chapter traces the slow displacement of traditional midwives by professionally trained and certified practitioners, and examines the role of the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, the Irish Poor Law medical service, and legislation – the Midwives (Ireland) Act, 1918 – in the process.