The History of Birth and Current Midwifery Practices

Trinity Fellow Valerie Worth’s research on historic birth practices is informing research by practicing midwives and reaching a wider public.

Professor Worth is Tutor for Graduates and a Professor of French; her research looks at the history of birth in early modern Europe (c. 1500-1700). Her work has particularly focused on knowledge exchange partnerships with research midwives and specialist archivists, resulting in a number of publications reaching a wide audience of practicing midwives and the public. Her work has most recently informed an article in the National Geographic, on contemporary German midwives’ fight for recognition of their work. In 2021, she wrote an article in the professional journal for German midwives on synergies between history and practice (Deutsche Hebammen Zeitschrift). She also published a piece on the origins of the Caesarean Section in BBC History Magazine, tracing the practices and debates around this operation from antiquity to the turn of the twentieth century.

Professor Worth says: ‘I am fortunate to benefit from Knowledge Exchange partnerships with research midwives and specialist archivists, who allow me to understand better the medical works and documents I read. In exchange, I look to share my historic findings, so that together we can continue to make the case for the respect midwifery should and must have in our modern societies.’