Man-Midwifery

William Smellie (1697-1763)

Until the mid 18th-C, male physicians/surgeons were rarely involved in routine Midwifery cases. Their role until then was mostly to perform destructive operations in cases of obstructed labor. The Cesarean section was rarely performed on a living woman, being almost always fatal during that era.

During the 17th- and early 18th-C, the Chamberlen family in England became famous for using forceps and the vectis (lever) to achieve live births in tedious labors. Their instruments remained a trade secret for over a century but, by the time Hugh Chamberlen Jr (1664-1728) died without a male heir, a number of British practitioners had acquired a knowledge of them.

William Smellie taught midwifery and the use of forceps to over 900 men, and cemented his place as "the father of British Obstetrics" with the publication of his Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery in 1752, which he supplemented in 1754 with a collection of unusually accurate anatomical illustrations.

Smellie's efforts to expand the role of men-midwives to normal labors were criticized by many of his contemporaries, male and female. Among the most vocal was Elizabeth Nihell(1723-1773), one of the few literate midwives of the time. Her arguments against man-midwifery are well-expounded in her 1760 Treatise on the Art of Midwifery.

Although man-midwifery had become well established in upper-class Britain and America by the early 1800s, an undercurrent of opposition to its practice on moral grounds continued unabated until the late 1800s. A few examples can be found under the "Readings" tab.