Simulation in Obstetrics, Gynecology and Midwifery

Abstract

Up to the seventeenth century, pregnancy and childbirth was surrounded by ignorance, myth, and superstition. It was thought that labor pains were caused by the fetus clawing its way out of the womb and that fetal malformations were the result of a woman seeing or dreaming something bad during the pregnancy. Complications of labor were thought to be predetermined and astrologists were consulted for information about the birth and the child. Most births occurred at home with female relatives and friends providing emotional support and sometimes a midwife provided “expert” assistance although in some European cities poor women delivered in lying-in hospitals. The title “midwife” was generally self-professed and based on experience attending births, sometimes as an apprentice, although at different times and places midwives were licensed by the church [1, pp. 24–49].