General practitioners and obstetrics: a brief history

Loudon, Irvine

doi:10.1258/jrsm.2008.080264

Cited by 14 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Income from midwifery was necessary to supplement the generally inadequate income of a surgeon-apothecary 10 and Timothy's account book records his professional fees for many deliveries at one guinea (£1 1s 0d), detailing the names of many known residents of Towcester (Figure 3). 6 In his entry at the end of 1790 he recorded his most prosperous year so far at an income of £511 4s 5½d yet he also showed concern for both the unfortunate and the poor – he made no charge for Mrs Andrews when attending her at her miscarriage (12 July 1797) nor for Mrs Phillips whose infant was stillborn (31 March 1797).…”

Section: Timothy and Variolationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A family of doctors over 250 years: innovation and controversy

Watkins

2011

J Med Biogr

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A family of Watkins doctors originating in the Northamptonshire town of Towcester included 13 doctors in seven generations during 250 years. In each generation there were between one and four doctors. Three doctors involved themselves actively in innovative yet controversial practises, described in their own writings and publications. Timothy Watkins' (1755-1834) own handwritten lecture notes describe the problems affecting an 18th-century man-midwife, while his accounts book provides insights into his lifestyle. The concept of the waterborne spread of cholera during the 1854 epidemic in Towcester is described by Robert Webb Watkins (1822-1901) during the same year as the observations made by John Snow (1813-58). John Webb Watkins (1833-1903) in his MD thesis (1856) describes his use of chloroform in labour in Towcester during the early 1850s, followed by self-experimentation with chloroform administered to him between 40 and 50 times by Sir James Young Simpson (1811-70) in Edinburgh. Descriptions of the two 19th-century general practitioners offer insights into the exemplary extent of their civic involvement in all walks of local community life, and of their family ties.

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Section: Timothy and Variolationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A family of doctors over 250 years: innovation and controversy

Watkins

2011

J Med Biogr

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“…Professor Shields is correct in suggesting that in my paper dealing with general practice in the 19th century, 1 and in particular on the practice of midwifery by Flinders in Lincolnshire. The evidence that Flinders disliked the practice of midwifery is based on slender evidence.…”

Section: Man-midwivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Man-midwives

Shields

2009

J R Soc Med

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“…It is estimated that by the end of the century, only around half of the births in England and Wales were delivered by female midwives in the women’s homes, with the other half being delivered by male practitioners, also in the women’s homes. 9…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Their access to education was restricted and the dissemination of medical knowledge was increasingly controlled by male doctors, although women did not necessarily acquiesce quietly. 8,9,11 Female midwives, even when literate, were rarely allowed to read the childbirth texts being written for male practitioners. 12 The encroaching of men into the domain of midwifery left poorer rewards for midwives and meant the numbers of better educated women who might have previously invested in learning to enter the profession declined.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…17 Midwifery, although it was still perceived by many surgeons and physicians as non-scientific, was a way that male practitioners could establish their practices. 9 Consequently, even in smaller towns, men who were known as surgeon-apothecaries appended the role of man-midwife. 12 Matthew Flinders was a surgeon-apothecary from Donington, England, who built up his practice in this way, and this paper describes a year of his work as a man-midwife.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Matthew Flinders Senior (1751–1802): Surgeon and ‘man midwife’

et al. 2017

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Until the eighteenth century, midwifery was the sole domain of women, but changes in medical science saw it appropriated by medical men and the 'man-midwife' emerged. This paper demonstrates the work of a man-midwife in a small English village in one year, 1775, using his accounts and correspondence. The man was Matthew Flinders Senior, 'surgeon and man-midwife' at Donington, Lincolnshire. He was the father of Captain Matthew Flinders, the famous navigator who mapped the coast line of Australia and who coined that name. Primary sources, published as a collection by the Lincoln Record Society, were used. Flinders Senior made a good living from his midwifery, charging rates commensurate with those charged by obstetricians today (with reduced costs for the poor). His descriptions of his practice show how midwifery was conducted in rural England during the development of medicine as a high-status profession. The paper uses data from one year to provide a snap shot of the work of a rural surgeon and man-midwife, but much more is available in the published collection, providing ready access for researchers who may like to pursue such work further.

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General practitioners and obstetrics: a brief history

Cited by 14 publications

References 7 publications

A family of doctors over 250 years: innovation and controversy

A family of doctors over 250 years: innovation and controversy

Man-midwives

Matthew Flinders Senior (1751–1802): Surgeon and ‘man midwife’

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