Elizabeth Nihell
Elizabeth Nihell | |
---|---|
Born | 1723 |
Died | May 1776 (aged 53) |
Occupation | Midwife |
Spouse | Edward or Edmund Nihell |
Elizabeth Nihell (1723–May 1776)[1] was an Englishwoman from London, who was a famous midwife, obstetrics writer, and polemicist. She was most famous for her outspoken stance against male midwives and for her publications.
Background
Nihell was born in 1723 in London to French Catholic parents.[2] There is little evidence on her earlier life before 1740 when she moved to Paris and married a man named Edmund or Edward Nihell, an Irish Catholic surgeon-apothecary from Clare.[1][3] He was the fourth son in a well-known family of merchants, medical men, and priests. They did have at least one child, however there is little documentation on whether the child lived or not. In 1754, Nihell and her husband moved to Haymarket Street in London, where she started her career in midwifery. By 1771, her husband had abandoned her, leaving her unable to financially support herself with just her work as a midwife. Finally, in 1775 after facing many struggles, she had to turn to the parish for financial assistance. She was sent to the St Martins-in-the-Fields workhouse. A year later in May 1776 Nihell died and was buried in a pauper's grave.[1] However, the cause of her death and location of her grave is unknown today.
Career
Nihell started her midwife training in 1747 at the
List of works
- Treatise on the Art of Midwifery. Setting forth various abuses therein, especially as to the practice with instruments: the whole serving to put all rational inquirers in a fair way of very safely forming their own judgment upon the question; which it is best to employ, in cases of pregnancy and lying-in, a man-midwife; or, a midwife, 1760.[1]
- The Danger and Immodesty of the Present too General Custom, 1772.[1]
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Lisa Forman Cody, Birthing the Nation Sex, Science, and the Conception of Eighteenth-century Britons, pp. 184–6
- ^ BIU Santé, Paris, Banque D'images Et De Portraits, 1
- ^ a b c Anne Bosanquet, Inspiration from the Past (3). Elizabeth Nihell, the 'anti-obstetric' Midwife, 48
- ^ a b Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie and Joy Harvey, The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient times to the Mid-20th Century, p. 946
- ^ Nina Rattner Gelbart, The King’s Midwife A History and Mystery of Madame du Coudray, 51-53
- ^ a b c Mary M. Lay, The Rhetoric of Midwifery: Gender, Knowledge, and Power, pp. 51–2
- ^ a b Judy Barrett Litoff, American Midwives, 1860 to the Present, p. 7
Bibliography
- "Banque D'images Et De Portraits." BIU Santé, Paris. Accessed 10 December 2014. http://www2.biusante.parisdescartes.fr/img/?refphot=anmpx22x2467 .
- Bosanquet, Anna. "Inspiration from the Past (3). Elizabeth Nihell, the 'anti-obstetric' Midwife." The Practising Midwife vol.12, no. 10 (2009): 46-48. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/eportfolios/bosanquet/publications_presentations/nihell_practising_midwife_article.pdf.
- Bryant, Frankee. "Labour Pains: Elizabeth Nihell and the Struggle to Champion Female Midwifery." Bluestocking, no. 10 (2011). http://blue-stocking.org.uk/2011/10/20/labour-pains-elizabeth-nihell-and-the-struggle-to-champion-female-midwifery/
- Cody, Lisa Forman. Birthing the Nation Sex, Science, and the Conception of Eighteenth-century Britons. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
- Gelbart, Nina Rattner. The King's Midwife a History and Mystery of Madame Du Coudray. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1998.
- Lay, Mary M. The Rhetoric of Midwifery Gender, Knowledge, and Power. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2000.
- Litoff, Judy Barrett. American Midwives, 1860 to the Present. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978.
- McTavish, Lianne. Childbirth and the Display of Authority in Early Modern France. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Pub., 2005.
- Nihell, Elizabeth. A Treatise on the Art of Midwifery: Setting Forth Various Abuses Therein, Especially as to the Practice with Instruments : The Whole Serving to Put All Rational Inquirers in a Fair Way of Very Safely Forming Their Own Judgment upon the Question, Which It Is Best to Employ, in Cases of Pregnancy and Lying-in, a Man-midwife, Or, a Midwife. London: Printed for A. Morley ..., 1760.
- Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey and Joy Harvey, eds., The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: Pioneering Lives from Ancient times to the Mid-20th Century. Vol. 2. New York: Routledge, 2000. 946.
- Romalis, Shelly. Childbirth, Alternatives to Medical Control. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981.
- Rothman, Barbara Katz. In Labor: Women and Power in the Birthplace. New York: Norton, 1982.
- Shorter, Edward. A History of Women's Bodies. New York: Basic Books, 1982.
External links
- A treatise on the art of midwifery (scanned page images)
- A Treatise on the Art of Midwifery at Project Gutenberg (transcribed text)
- Elizabeth Nihell, the anti-obstetric midwife