Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- Introduction: Authority, Expertise and German Midwifery's Contribution to Debates of Nature versus Science
- 1 Expertise, Authority and the Written Record: An Overview of Midwives' Evolving Role in the Public Sphere
- 2 From Storchtanten to Gebildete Frauen: The Roots of Modern Professionalization
- 3 Birthing under the Swastika: Indoctrinating Midwives into the Nazi Pro-Natalist State
- 4 Strong Hands and Steady Demeanour: Identifying the Characteristics of an Ideal Midwifery Student
- 5 Babies, Bottles and Bureaucracy: Course Curriculum, World Views and Essential Knowledge for a Midwife
- 6 The Art and Science of Childbirth: Constructing Midwifery and Obstetrical Textbooks
- Conclusion: Modern Professional Midwifery
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
2 - From Storchtanten to Gebildete Frauen: The Roots of Modern Professionalization
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Acknowledgements
- Preface
- Introduction: Authority, Expertise and German Midwifery's Contribution to Debates of Nature versus Science
- 1 Expertise, Authority and the Written Record: An Overview of Midwives' Evolving Role in the Public Sphere
- 2 From Storchtanten to Gebildete Frauen: The Roots of Modern Professionalization
- 3 Birthing under the Swastika: Indoctrinating Midwives into the Nazi Pro-Natalist State
- 4 Strong Hands and Steady Demeanour: Identifying the Characteristics of an Ideal Midwifery Student
- 5 Babies, Bottles and Bureaucracy: Course Curriculum, World Views and Essential Knowledge for a Midwife
- 6 The Art and Science of Childbirth: Constructing Midwifery and Obstetrical Textbooks
- Conclusion: Modern Professional Midwifery
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
At the beginning of the 1860s there were 12,000 midwives in Prussia. The number grew exponentially in the following years until there were already 16,375 midwives by 1 April 1876. The degree to which this number has increased is easy to understand when one thinks that 400 midwifery students graduate each year
…(In 1886) there are 28 million people in Prussia, with 1.120 million births assisted by 20,375 midwives.
Berlin Midwifery Journal, April 1886Is the midwifery journal necessary for the Organization of German Midwives? Could the organization not function without a journal? No! Many readers think that I exaggerate and are amazed at my fanciful thinking. No, my dear reader, I am not being fanciful when I say: Without a good midwifery journal our national midwifery organization would be impossible.
Frau A. Schüβler, President, Technical Organization of Essener City and Land Midwives, February 1894Although the German-speaking states had a long tradition of midwives' participation in the public sphere, their craft did not begin to transform into a modern profession until the very end of the nineteenth century. Picking up from Chapter 1, and covering the years from 1885 through to the 1920s, this chapter examines the active role midwives took in carving out occupational authority in the new public sphere of institutionalized medicine. While the previous centuries saw government and church officials systematically chip away at midwives' authority and expertise, the decades of the Wilhelminian and Weimar eras saw a committed group of midwives reassert their right to occupational autonomy. Due in large part to the efforts of one woman, Olga Gebauer, midwives established the recognized markers of professionalization, including a membership association and trade journal, both of which allowed them to insert their voices into the written record.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Modern German Midwifery, 1885–1960 , pp. 33 - 56Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014