From Girlhood to Motherhood: Rituals of Childbirth and Obstetrical Medicine Re-Examined through John Milton

Abstract

This article considers how seventeenth-century writer John Milton engages in modes of thinking that register the obstetric revolution occurring during the period. During a time when physicians were gaining entry to the birthing room, a medical rhetoric of childbirth was developing that cast childbirth in new pathological terms. Milton's A Masque Presented at Ludlow Castle demonstrates how childbirth was influenced by emerging obstetrical language and practice, as well as the ways in which a writer might question such influence. Finally, this article also draws links between disrupted historical rituals of childbirth and modern anxieties about medically-centred birthing practices.

Character education in the tradition of peraq api in the community of Sasak, Lombok, Indonesia

“…As additional information, Schober (2021) in his research said that birth rituals were very important to ensure the continuity of the monarchy of the Habsburg dynasty. Birth rituals are believed to reduce medical anxiety during childbirth (Frayne 2020). Birth rituals are not only carried out by people who give birth traditionally but also those who undergo medical treatment (Hennessey 2021).…”