[De-professionalization or 'para-professionalization'?. The professional development of the midwife and her place in the obstetrics of the 19th century].

The present article deals with the standing and the tasks of midwives in 19th century Württemberg. After outlining the legal framework of obstetrics, special emphasis was given to the education and activities of contemporary midwives, and to their numbers. At the beginning of the 18th century, obstetrics was almost exclusively in the hands of women. After 1800, a growing number of barber-surgeons and physicians began to practise obstetrics. At the same time, vocational training and qualification of women-obstetricians increased considerably. Schools for midwives and lying-in hospitals were founded. In these schools a limited number of midwives were trained by physicians. Finally a hierarchy of different groups of obstetricians developed: first physicians, then barber-surgeons, midwives and folk healers. Although midwives were more or less excluded from operative obstetrics and high-risk-pregnancies, care and supervision of uncomplicated pregnancies, and of women in childbed remained their responsibility. It could be shown that in 19th century Württemberg more than 90 percent of pregnancies ran a safe course, and neither physicians nor barber-surgeons took a special interest in the care of normal births. Thus there was no dramatic transfer of obstetric care from the hands of the midwives to those of academically trained men. The high social status of the university-bred physicians separated them from most of the patients, as did the doctors' high fees. A certain indolence, and a remarkable sense of shame on the part of the pregnant women prevented much demand for academic obstetricians.