Ženy s kufříkem a nadějí – Lenderová Milena (2020)

For generations, the midwife is part of the local collective memory, regarded as a fixture of the community alongside the priest, teacher and mayor. Everyone needs her: she assists with both biological birth, bringing the child from its mother’s womb, and social birth, holding the baby at baptism and sometimes becoming its godmother. She also takes part in other ceremonies and plays an important role in rites of passage, including birth, baptism, churching and death. Between approximately 1850 and 1950, midwifery becomes increasingly professionalized, changing within a century from neighbourly assistance into a legally regulated occupation. This Czech-language book follows changes in the legal framework governing midwives’ lives and work, the institutionalization of midwifery education, and the changing relationship between midwives and the Church. It examines their sometimes harmonious and sometimes difficult relationship with doctors, as well as the gender stereotypes most evident in this field. Midwives are also presented as a professional group, including the frequency and ways in which they broke the law in their demanding practice. The conclusion traces their growing professional self-awareness and asks when and how they began to assert their rights, why they rejected the designation “bába” and sought the more dignified name “midwife.”