分娩

历史记载 1

现代医学进步之前的分娩
甚至于在现代早期，由于各种有意的社会阻碍，妇女仍然对自身的身体功能一无所知。人类生殖的所有话题曾经是禁忌，性器官曾经被认为是肮脏的。确确实实，人们那时甚至回避看到自己的裸体，把受精、妊娠和分娩看作是隐晦和危险的神秘事物。其结果是许多妇女害怕成为母亲——她们从确切或严格的意义上完全不接触与自己身体相关的任何知识。
在那个年代，分娩可能是非常压抑的、不体面的和危险的经历。例如，人们普遍认为妇女一定会忍受她们生育孩子的痛楚，并且也认为这种苦楚对她们来说是一件好事，因为痛苦会强化她们做母亲的感触。人们认为妇女在分娩中扮演一个完全被动的角色。因为她们不理解分娩过程，所以几乎不知道分娩中究竟在自己身上发生了什么。此外，家居和医院不卫生的条件使得产妇和新生儿处于严重的感染危险之中。因而，许多产妇死于产床上，许多新生儿在生下数周就从未幸存下来。

Birth

Historical Notes 1

Childbirth before the Advances of Modern Medicine
Even in early modern times, women were still deliberately kept ignorant about their own body functions. The entire subject of human reproduction was taboo. Sex organs were considered dirty. Indeed, people were not even supposed to look at themselves in the nude. Conception, pregnancy, and birth were dark and threatening mysteries. As a result, many women were afraid of becoming mothers-they were literally out of touch with their bodies.
In those days, childbirth could be a very depressing, degrading, and dangerous experience. For example, it was widely believed that a woman was destined to bear her children in pain and that such suffering was good for her since it would increase her motherly feelings. She was expected to play a completely passive role. As she had no understanding of the process of birth, she hardly knew what was happening to her. Furthermore, unsanitary conditions in homes and hospitals exposed mothers and their babies to serious infections. Thus, many women died in childbed, and many infants never survived the first few weeks of their lives.