Midwives & Witch Accusations: Controlling Women's Bodies
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Introduction: The War on Birth Attendants
For thousands of years, women gave birth attended by other women. Midwives were the guardians of women's reproductive knowledge—they knew how to ease labor pain, stop hemorrhaging, turn breech babies, and save lives. They were respected, essential, and powerful.
Then the witch hunts targeted them with particular ferocity. The Malleus Maleficarum declared: "No one does more harm to the Catholic faith than midwives." Across Europe, midwives were accused of sacrificing babies, causing stillbirths, and making pacts with the Devil. The persecution of midwives was not about protecting children—it was about controlling women's bodies and reproduction.
This is the eleventh article in our Witch Hunts series. We now examine why midwives were targeted, how their knowledge threatened patriarchal control, and how the witch hunts transferred power over birth from women to male doctors—with deadly consequences.
The Medieval Midwife: Guardian of Birth
Who Were Midwives?
- Experienced women: Usually older, post-menopausal
- Trained through apprenticeship: Learning from other midwives
- Community role: Respected, essential, well-paid
- Knowledge holders: Reproductive health, contraception, abortion
Their Skills
- Labor support: Positioning, massage, encouragement
- Pain management: Herbs (ergot, willow bark, poppy)
- Complication management: Breech births, hemorrhage, retained placenta
- Newborn care: Resuscitation, cord cutting, initial feeding
- Postpartum care: Healing, breastfeeding support, infection prevention
Their Knowledge
- Contraception: Queen Anne's lace, pennyroyal, barrier methods
- Abortion: Tansy, rue, pennyroyal (dangerous but used)
- Fertility: Herbs and timing to aid conception
- Women's health: Menstrual issues, menopause, infections
Why Midwives Were Targeted
1. Control of Reproduction
What midwives controlled:
- Knowledge of contraception (limiting births)
- Knowledge of abortion (ending pregnancies)
- Timing and spacing of children
- Women's reproductive autonomy
Why this threatened authority:
- Church wanted to control sexuality and reproduction
- State wanted population growth (more workers, soldiers)
- Husbands wanted control over wives' fertility
- Midwives gave women power over their own bodies
2. Economic Competition
Midwifery was lucrative:
- Every woman needed a midwife
- Wealthy families paid well
- Midwives had economic independence
- Male barber-surgeons wanted this market
Solution: Eliminate female midwives, replace with male doctors
3. Knowledge = Power = Threat
- Midwives had intimate knowledge of women's bodies
- They knew secrets (illegitimate pregnancies, abortions)
- They had authority in birthing rooms (male-free spaces)
- Their expertise challenged male medical claims
4. Scapegoating for Infant Mortality
Reality: High infant and maternal mortality (poor nutrition, disease, lack of hygiene)
Scapegoat: Blame midwives for deaths
- If baby died: midwife sacrificed it to Satan
- If mother died: midwife murdered her
- If baby deformed: midwife cursed it
- If labor difficult: midwife caused it through witchcraft
The Accusations: What Midwives Were Charged With
Sacrificing Babies to the Devil
Accusation: Midwives killed unbaptized babies and offered them to Satan
"Evidence":
- Stillbirths (natural but blamed on midwife)
- Neonatal deaths (common but called murder)
- Deformed babies (blamed on curses)
Reality: High infant mortality due to poverty, disease, malnutrition—not witchcraft
Using Baby Parts for Magic
Accusation: Midwives harvested body parts (fat, blood, organs) for magical ointments and potions
"Evidence": Midwives handled placentas and umbilical cords (normal medical practice)
Reality: Placentas were sometimes buried or used medicinally (not magically)
Causing Impotence and Infertility
Accusation: Midwives cursed men to be impotent or women to be barren
"Evidence": Couples who couldn't conceive after consulting midwife
Reality: Natural infertility, but midwife blamed
Performing Abortions
Accusation: Midwives murdered unborn children
Reality: Some midwives did provide abortions (dangerous, sometimes necessary)
Why this was "witchcraft": Church and state wanted to control women's reproduction
Case Studies: Midwives Accused
Walpurga Hausmännin (Germany, 1587)
Who: Midwife in Dillingen, Bavaria
Accusations:
- Killed 40+ infants over 19 years
- Used baby fat to make flying ointment
- Had sex with the Devil
- Caused crop failures and storms
Torture: Strappado, thumbscrews, leg vices
Confession: Admitted to everything under torture
Execution: Hand cut off, burned alive (September 1587)
Reality: Likely a skilled midwife scapegoated for natural infant deaths
Peronette (France, 1408)
Who: Parisian midwife
Accusation: Using sorcery in childbirth
Fate: Burned at the stake
Agnes Sampson (Scotland, 1591)
Who: Midwife and healer from Keith
Accusations:
- Using witchcraft to assist births
- Predicting birth outcomes (called prophecy)
- Having supernatural knowledge of women's bodies
Fate: Tortured and burned (part of North Berwick trials)
The Medicalization of Childbirth
The Transition (15th-18th centuries)
Before:
- Women attended by female midwives
- Birth in home, upright positions
- Natural process, minimal intervention
- Lower mortality rates
After:
- Women attended by male doctors
- Birth in hospitals, lying down
- Medical interventions (forceps, drugs)
- Higher mortality rates (until 20th century)
The Rise of Male Midwives (Accoucheurs)
17th-18th centuries: Male barber-surgeons entered childbirth
Methods:
- Legal restrictions on female midwives
- Licensing requirements (women couldn't get licenses)
- Witch accusations eliminating competition
- Claiming superior knowledge (false)
The Forceps Monopoly
1600s: Chamberlen family invented obstetric forceps
- Kept design secret for 100+ years
- Only male doctors allowed to use
- Used to justify excluding female midwives
- Often caused more harm than help (crushed babies' heads)
The Deadly Consequences
Puerperal fever (childbed fever):
- Caused by doctors not washing hands
- Spread from corpse dissections to birthing rooms
- Killed thousands of women in hospitals
- Female midwives had better hygiene, lower infection rates
Ignaz Semmelweis (1847): Proved handwashing prevented deaths, but was ridiculed by male doctors
The Church's Role: Baptism and Control
Emergency Baptism
Church requirement: Midwives must baptize dying babies
Why: Unbaptized babies couldn't enter heaven (Church doctrine)
Control mechanism:
- Midwives had to be approved by Church
- Had to swear oaths of orthodoxy
- Had to report suspicious births (illegitimate, deformed)
- Became agents of Church surveillance
The Oath
Midwives swore to:
- Baptize dying babies
- Not use witchcraft or sorcery
- Not perform abortions
- Not help unmarried women conceal pregnancies
- Report any suspicious activities
Result: Midwives became informants, or were accused of breaking oaths
The Lost Knowledge
What Was Destroyed
- Pain management: Effective herbal analgesics
- Positioning: Upright, squatting, hands-and-knees (better than lying down)
- Complication management: Techniques for breech, shoulder dystocia
- Postpartum care: Preventing infection, supporting healing
- Contraception: Methods for spacing births
The Rediscovery
20th-21st centuries:
- Revival of midwifery as profession
- Evidence-based birth practices validate traditional methods
- Home birth and birth centers return
- Recognition that midwife-attended births are often safer
Modern Parallels
Ongoing Control of Women's Reproduction
- Abortion bans and restrictions
- Forced sterilization of marginalized women
- Criminalization of pregnancy outcomes
- Medical paternalism in childbirth
The Midwife Renaissance
- Certified Nurse Midwives (CNMs)
- Direct-entry midwives
- Doulas and birth workers
- Reclaiming women-centered birth
Conclusion: The Body Belongs to the Woman
The persecution of midwives was about power—the power to control women's bodies, reproduction, and sexuality. When midwives burned, women lost autonomy over birth, and male doctors gained a monopoly that lasted centuries. The witch hunts were not about protecting babies; they were about controlling women.
In the next article, we will explore The Witch's Familiar: Cats, Toads & Animal Companions. We will examine why keeping pets became evidence of witchcraft, the demonization of cats, and how the persecution of "familiars" revealed anxieties about female independence and companionship.
They burned the midwives. They called it protecting children. We call it controlling women.
For the midwives who saved lives. For the knowledge that was lost. For the women who died giving birth after midwives were gone. We remember.
The loss of midwifery knowledge resonates deeply for those of us drawn to reclaiming ancestral wisdom that was systematically erased. In my own practice, I find solace in rituals that honor the liminal spaces and the cycles of nature, like the deep reflective work of the 13 New Moon Rituals which echoes the quiet power of the moon and the womb. For grounding and clearing the heaviness that such history carries, the Sacred Space Cleanse offers a tangible way to reclaim and purify personal energy. And for those navigating their own journey between the seen and unseen, the Shadow Work Tarot guide provides a gentle framework for integrating the parts of ourselves that history has tried to silence.
