Safe Deliverance

Part 1 Childbirth and women's collecive culture: contexts; the ceremony of childbirth; to be a midwife. Part 2 Obstetric surgery and reformed Christianity: the origins of obstetric surgery; Calvinist initiatives; the Chamberlen dynasty. Part 3 The regulation of midwives: midwives and the Church of England; vicissitudes of episcopal licensing; licensing in practice. Part 4 Reconstructions of a male practitioner - Percival Willughby: portrait - Willughby's obstetric practice; the impact of Puritanism. Part 5 The old and the new: the continuing Reformation: midwives regulated and unregulated; transformations of obstetric surgery; a safe deliverance.