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Louis 14 black baby11/11/2023 all women are not accustomed to be delivered in the same posture some will be on their knees, as man in country villages others standing upright, leaning with the elbows on a pillow upon a table, or on the side of a bed… but the best and surest is to deliver in their bed, to shun the inconvenience and trouble of being carried thither afterwards ![]() In his 1668 book, “The Diseases of Women With Child and in Child-Bed,” Mariceau argued that the reclined position would be more comfortable and more convenient for the physician: ![]() By the end of the 17th century, Parisian women most commonly delivered in a special reclined bed while women in England began to deliver birth while on their side.Īccording to the author of the 1987 review, Guillemeau may have advocated for the reclining position, but it is Mariceau who is generally credited with influencing the change. One of Paré’s students, Jacques Guillemeau, advocated for a reclining birth in 1598, arguing that it would best allow surgeons to perform childbirth. Namely, a perspective shift occurred in the 16th-century, when pregnancy was treated as a sickness and not a normal part of a life cycle that required medical intervention. Trained with little obstetric experience, these early barber-physicians often threatened the lives of their patients.ĭubbed the father of modern surgery, Ambroise Paré was a famous French surgeon who practiced medicine around the same time as the barber-physicians and is known for his influence in obstetrics. But around this same time, barber-physicians who, as their name suggests, served as both barbers and physicians, began to compete with midwives in caring for pregnant women. Until the mid-1500s, midwives were among the primary people in attendance during births. By and large, most agree that the change was influenced by the French nearly 300 years ago. Scholars argue that the shift from upright to horizontal happened for a variety of reasons, from the “promotion of men’s power over women,” to the facilitation of forceps and anesthesia. Screenshot/American Journal of Public Health Notably, a relief in the Temple of Esneh in Egypt shows Cleopatra in a kneeling position surrounded by five women, one of whom delivers her child. But before either became the norm, many cultures were known to require women giving birth to sit, kneel, or squat in an upright position - and sometimes even standing during labor and delivery. In her 1987 paper, author Lauren Dundes described the historical roots of two birthing positions, the dorsal, which is when a woman lies flat on her back, and lihotomy, where a woman lies on her back with her legs in the stirrups. To fully understand the claim, we’ll take a dive through history. It appeared that media publications that covered the story at the time embellished the role Louis played in transition birthing protocol. While it is accurate to say that Louis took an interest in and preferred to view his wife's birthing in a supine position, it was physician François Mariceau who was considered to have greatly influenced the change in the birthing position. The story picked up steam again in October 2019 when historian and author Greg Jenner shared a tweet claiming that the findings were presented out of context by media outlets. It went viral in March 2018 when British tabloid The Sun detailed the review’s finding in an article titled, "This is the Creepy Reason Women Give Birth Lying Down - and it’s all Down to One Man and his Fetish." The claim is based on a 1987 review published in the American Journal of Public Health. But standard practices at the time - which included kneeling, squatting, or sitting upright - obstructed the Sun King’s view, prompting him to supposedly require that all women give birth lying flat on their backs.Īs with most internet legends, kernels of truth are sprinkled within this claim, but it is largely false. In late 2020, rumors once again circled the internet about the womanizing 17th-century ruler of France King Louis XIV who was thought to have had a fetish for watching women give birth. Louis did not require that women give birth lying flat on their back, nor did he inspire the practice.
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