Introduction
In ancient Rome, only the men who were regarded to be of higher status in the society got the best education and health care. Aristocratic women were also entitled to the special treatment that men got. However, this class of women made a very small percentage of the entire women population. Women from all levels however, had a major responsibility of bearing a child regardless of their social position or economic status. In ancient Rome, childbirth was a perilous experience for the women and their unborn children since there was a high rate of infant mortality. Maternal mortality was also very high in ancient Rome. The Romans used traditional medicine and also had some religious practices that did not take into consideration the health of the women and their unborn children. The development of the Hippocratic medicine brought some advances in the care of women during pregnancies and internment. The midwives played very important roles in improving the outcomes of the pregnancies. The evolutions that took place from the traditions to the obstetrics were an instrumental turning point in the history of childbirth in ancient Rome. In ancient Rome, women were married at a tender age of 12 years and even in some cases, younger than that (Weeks, 2008). The life expectancy during the time was very dissimilar to what we have today. Majority of the Romans only lived for two decades while the lucky ones could go for up to three decades. Many women died during childbirth as they were often weakened by having many children without having any form of acquittal. In ancient Rome, women were likely to have as many children as they could manage since none of the children had the assurance of reaching maturity. People from aristocratic families wanted male children as they were regarded to occupy a higher status in the society as compared to their female counterparts. They therefore wanted their wives to be always pregnant. An infertile woman was immediately divorced. Women from the upper class had more children as compared to the women from the lower classes. This is because women from the lower classes lacked means of supporting the many children. However, their husbands wanted more children who could help in carrying the family name and also help out in works on the farms. Women in ancient Rome had no choice of whether to have a child or not. They also had no say when a father decided to expose a new born. In ancient Rome, it was a custom that the newborns were placed in front of the father. The father would then exercise his recognition by picking a child or deciding to abandon a child. Most of the abandoned babies were females. An abandoned baby would then be left to starve to death or abandoned in the river. Women therefore had to give birth to as many children as possible so as to carry on the family lineage especially in cases when most of the born children were females. This practice resulted into decreased number of female population in ancient Rome as the girls were in most cases neglected. A father would simply write a letter to the mother instructing her to let a boy live and expose a girl. The woman could not overturn such a decision (Pillitteri, 2009).
The dangers of childbirth are an occasion of great apprehension for any concerned person. The death of a woman or her baby was a common occurrence in the ancient Rome. There were several solutions that were sought in order to reduce the rates of maternal and infant mortality in the ancient Rome. The Romans had lots of knowledge on childbirth and the actions that could be taken in order to minimize death at birth of the mother, the child or both (Cory, 2011). They used folk medicine which helped in hastening and make labor more bearable. Use of hyena loins produced some fat fumigation that produced immediate delivery for women in difficult labor. Other folk medicines that were used here were purely mythical and had no scientific proofs but surprisingly, they worked in most cases. The contemporary midwives are however unwilling to experiment with any of the forms of folk medicines. The midwives also knew the importance of having a woman relaxed during delivery so as to ease labor. When a woman believed that a vulture feather for instance would ease her pain, even though scientifically this is not true, once she saw the feather being used, she would eventually relax and help her pain calm down. Consequently, the midwives gave women different types of concoctions mixed with water (Bahasadri et al., 2006). The women believed that they were being given some medicine that would help them have a successful delivery. In real sense, the concoctions just helped in preventing dehydration which is a serious problem especially in cases of protracted labor.
The midwives in ancient Rome were very knowledgeable especially on the body parts of a woman and how a woman should be placed when giving birth. They had knowledge on how handling of a woman should be done during delivery. When labor started, the midwife would be called and the necessary equipment provided for her. The midwife would then require that the woman giving birth lies on her back on a bed with some support under her lips. She then drew her feet together and parted the woman’s thighs. This was done in order to help her during pushing and prevent her from closing her legs that would make her kill the baby or even cause her own death. The midwives eased the labor pains by applying some gentle massage on different parts of the woman’s body. When the cervix started to dilate, the midwife encouraged this process by rubbing her forefinger smeared with oil on the opening. Once the cervix had dilated and reached the size of an egg, the woman is then moved to the midwife’s stool. This helped in enhancing delivery. During delivery, the midwife was assisted by two assistants who helped in allaying the anxiety of the mother. The assistants ensured that the woman never swayed and kept on ensuring the mother that all was well. The midwife also instructed the mother on how to properly breathe and push the fetus during contraction. The midwife is also required to wrap her hands in pieces of cloth so that the newborn does not slip out of her hands since the newborns are very slippery (Zapardiel et al., 2009).
A great number of the women in ancient Rome received their maternity care from the midwives especially if they could afford the services. The traditional folk medicines which were used here did very little to make the childbirth a safe procedure. Efforts were therefore made to give the women emotional support. The midwives had higher status in the society and were highly knowledgeable.
The midwife also had knowledge on the wandering womb of which they believed that the bodily symptoms also known as hysteria were caused by a womb that wandered all through the body. This is a concept that has been supported by the modern day gynecologists who have attributed such symptoms to some form of movements of the uterus. They were also well aware of the problems that were brought about by these symptoms and tried all that they could to encourage the woman to remain relaxed so as to prevent her from undergoing any kind of mental or physical interference.
The midwives also require that the women or their family members furnish them with information about their bodies. This will help them in offering the best kind of care to the women. They may have a lot of knowledge on women body but there are some traits that they need to know about the history of the woman’s body so that she can predict on when dilation will take place and the probable size of the cervix when it opens up. The midwives also had beliefs of trusting the women’s bodies during birth (Van Handel et al., 2007).
Childbirth is a process that comes along with several complications especially when things go on wrong. However, when things happen as anticipated, it comes with a lot of joy and relief. In ancient Rome, women were faced with two different types of uncertainties. Every woman in the ancient Rome wished to give birth to a male a child since they feared that their husbands would reject a baby when they gave birth to girls. Another set of uncertainties that they were faced with was the safety of the birth process. Since during those days there were no adequate measures that were in place to help the mothers especially when they had complications during birth. Women who faced difficulties during birth were left helpless and most of them ended up dying during birth. Childbirth therefore can turn out to be a very painful ordeal. Some of the dangers associated with childbirth include maternal mortality and infant mortality. Some children and mothers died in the process of giving birth. Some women also developed complications that significantly changed their mode of life. Apparently, there were no corrective mechanisms in place and the women were left to live with the problems developed during birth throughout their lives and in some cases led to post maternal deaths. In some cases, childbirth caused family disintegration especially when the father’s wishes were not met. Men believed that women determined the sex of the newborn. Therefore if a woman could not give birth to a boy-child, he was sent off. On the other side, a woman who could not give birth to any baby was also divorced. Apart from the pains and the disappointments brought about by childbirth, it was generally considered a noble act in the ancient Rome as it helped in maintaining the population since people hardly reached their forties. Other dangers of childbirth include blood pressure. In some women, the blood pressure changed significantly after childbirth. If this is not properly corrected in due time, the mother is likely to undergo some more complications that may also lead to post maternal deaths. Childbirth also caused huge blood loss which left the mothers anemic. If the bold is not replaced then the woman can have even more severe complications after birth (Eberhard, 2005).
Most women felt excited about childbirth in ancient Rome. Every woman was delighted to see their newborn babies. However, in some cases, it brought about grief especially if the women had still births or had complications during birth. The process of childbirth was also a very painful experience for most of the women (Todman, 2007). However, the women strove to ensure that they delivered successfully despite the painful ordeals that they went through. Women also were left in a state of quagmire especially when they delivered female babies since they did not know the decisions that would be made by the fathers. The fathers would decide to accept or reject the babies and this brought about some form of discomfort among the women soon after giving birth.
Childbirth was very important to the ancient Rome since there were very high cases of infant mortality. One could not tell which child would live to maturity and most of the Romans hardly reached their forties. Therefore, there was need of having a mechanism that would replace the fast dying population and that would ensure that a good number of the children reached maturity. Female children were also despised and in some cases they were abandoned. Women therefore had to give birth as many times as possible so as to ensure constant supply of male children to the society. In order to have a population that could be sustainable, it was necessary for a perpetual births to ensure the family lineage was maintained and also have men who could work in farms especially in the rural areas (Todman, 2007).
Work cited list
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