Adrian Wilson - The Making of Man-Midwifery: Childbirth in England, 1660-1770

The world will give me credit, surely, for having had sufficient opportunities of knowing a good deal of female characters. I have seen the private as well as the public virtues, the private as well as the more public frailties of women in all ranks of life. I have been in their secrets, their counsellor and adviser in the moments of their greatest distress in body and mind. I have been a witness to their private conduct, when they were preparing themselves to meet danger, and have heard their last and most serious reflections, when they were certain they had but a few hours to live.

William Hunter in 1783

I first became intrigued by this subject in 1974; my approach has changed a great deal since I completed a doctoral thesis on some aspects of it in 1982. A long gestation has produced many obligations, and it is a pleasure to thank those who have helped to make this book possible.

For generous financial support I am most grateful to my parents; to Clare Hall, Cambridge; to the Local Population Studies Society; and to the Wellcome Trust. Behind any history book labours an unseen army of archivists and librarians: for their unfailing courtesy and help I wish to thank the staffs of the Derbyshire County Record Office; Greater London Record Office; Leicestershire Record Office; Lichfield Joint Record Office; Lincolnshire Archives Office; Norfolk and Norwich Record Office; British Library; Cambridge University Library; Hunterian Library, University of Glasgow; Bodleian Library, Oxford; Huntingdon Library; Library of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine; Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Library; Royal College of Physicians Library; and the Royal College of Surgeons Library. The computing staff at Cambridge and Leicester have given kind and efficient help; in this connection I especially thank Richard Mobbs at Leicester. For advice and support over the years I thank my present and former colleagues at Cambridge, Leicester and Leeds: in Cambridge, at the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, the History and Philosophy of Science Department, the ESRC Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, the Centre for Family Research (formerly the Child Care and Development Group), and the History Faculty; at Leicester, the Departments of Economic and Social History, English Local History, and History; at Leeds, the History and Philosophy of Science Division of the Philosophy Department. I am also grateful for the observations and advice of my former undergraduate and postgraduate students and of the participants in seminar discussions at various universities, at the London Hospital, and at the Halifax branch of the Royal College of Midwives.