Midwifery and childbirth among enslaved and freed women in Rio de Janeiro in the first half of the nineteenth century

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper analyses changes in the experience of midwifery and childbirth among enslaved women, impoverished free women of colour, and freedwomen in the context of urban slavery in Rio de Janeiro during the first half of the nineteenth century. Over this period, the role of the midwife (traditionally practised by women without formal training whose lives mostly traversed slavery) began to be questioned. This process of discrediting midwives occurred at the same time as attempts were made to make educated midwives submit to the precepts of medicine. Parturient women’s living conditions also influenced the experience of childbirth. Although they lived in subordinate positions, limited options were available to these women, and they often made choices that went against what doctors considered to be most appropriate.