1876 - late registration of illegitimate birth (RHODES) (General)

by ChrisW @, Tuesday, March 01, 2016, 13:21 (3198 days ago) @ smashton

Hi

"Charwoman turned midwife"

The Office of Midwife – Some Historical Background

http://sites.nursing.manchester.ac.uk/ukchnm/midwives/officeofmidwife.pdf

Women have helped each other in childbirth from time immemorial; indeed, until relatively recently such attendance remained a female domain in which men very rarely played a part. Generally the midwife was the senior woman in the community, commonly a married woman or widow who had herself given birth.

Jane Herbert lived in the same road as your Hannah, so was probably the woman that was usually sent for!

Regards
Chris

NB I had a look at the the British Newspaper Archives but could not find any mention of Hannah or the Parish taking anyone to court to obtain maintenance for Frank. It could possibly be that she was able to manage financially; or had help from her family, or couldn't say for sure who the father was. Or perhaps she did not want to wash her dirty linen in public. Maybe the father admitted paternity and made a private arrangement with Hannah to provide for his son. We'll probably never know!


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