Witches, Midwives, & Nurses (Second Edition): A History of Women Healers (Contemporary Classics)

Herbal knowledge was very deep before the witch burnings, and midwife-healers were the main practitioners in European villages and towns. In those days women controlled their own fertility.

We have become convinced that if we do this any other way, we will endanger the children we are bringing into the world—that we will do the ultimate disservice and be ultimately irresponsible to our offspring. So we mutely accept the advice of the Almighty Doctor and his white-coated staff, and, consequently, we endure an extremely high “complicati

During the early twentieth century, women weren’t just driven out of the field of health care, they were also actively excluded from accessing medical education. And with that, the responsibility of caring for pregnant women shifted to men.

The most obvious example of how far we have strayed from our organic roots as a female community is the birthing practices of our present-day culture. Women have actually come to believe that we don’t know how to have babies. We fear it, dread it, look to the “experts” to help us do it right. We go to sterile, unloving environments away from home a

As the art and science of medicine grew apart, the identification of each with opposite genders evolved. Scientific knowledge and technical competence came to be more associated with men (doctors), while compassionate care was mainly the purview of women (nurses and other non-physician medical professionals).