] "I am determined not to stay home any Longer till I take to my bed.... but they all say it is impossible I should waddle about till that time I am such a monster in size..."

] (Quoted in Amanda Vickery's 'The Gentleman's Daughter')

I'm reading "The Gentleman's Daughter" also and I've just come to the chapter on Pregnancy and childbirth. I'm very glad I live todqy.

I am still horrified at the description of Anne Gossip's labour and delivery. She seems at the opposite end of the scale from Bessie Ramsden.

Also, Vickery makes no mention of man midwives roles in childbirth deaths, but I think it is assumed that women died at the same rate whatever the level of medical attention they received. Vickery points out that genteel women of the period generally preferred male "professionals" to traditional midwives, and it seems to have been the woman's perogative whom to choose.