Essay On Childbirth In The Middle Ages
Childbirth and Children in the Middle Ages
In Medieval times, pregnancy was not viewed as something beautiful. Bringing a new life into the world caused more harm than good. Nowadays, pregnancy is widely talked about. When a woman becomes pregnant, it isn’t frowned upon like it was in the Middle Ages. Pictures of pregnant women appear all over social media and in magazines that show how popular and appreciated it is now, but it was very dangerous in the Middle Ages.
The Risk of pregnancy
Pregnancy in the Middle Ages had many risks for the mother and baby. Either could die from the lack of proper medications during pregnancy. Many women would have not even known they were pregnant due to no reliable test. One test that was common to test pregnancy was to examine the color of the woman's …show more content…
Some of them were lucky enough to work at home, while others were sent away by their own families to be servants for other people. The ones that were fortunate enough to say with their families would begin to learn what their parents did for a living. Boys would work in the fields, workshops, mines or wherever their other male family members worked. At first, boys would start out doing simple tasks, until the age of thirteen/fourteen when they could start doing nearly any job for their father or male relatives. Few children in the Middle Ages received any education (Ellis and Esler 233).
Higher Class Children
Children of the noble families saw very little of their parents. Once they reached a certain age, a nurse was sent to look after them. The nurse was in charge of many things: feeding, bathing, changing, singing to the baby, and taking care of it when it was sick. The nurse was more of a mother figure for the baby than the original mother. Even though the richer families could afford a nurse to provide milk for the baby, sometimes some of the mothers provided it for their child instead.
Lower Class
In Medieval times, pregnancy was not viewed as something beautiful. Bringing a new life into the world caused more harm than good. Nowadays, pregnancy is widely talked about. When a woman becomes pregnant, it isn’t frowned upon like it was in the Middle Ages. Pictures of pregnant women appear all over social media and in magazines that show how popular and appreciated it is now, but it was very dangerous in the Middle Ages.
The Risk of pregnancy
Pregnancy in the Middle Ages had many risks for the mother and baby. Either could die from the lack of proper medications during pregnancy. Many women would have not even known they were pregnant due to no reliable test. One test that was common to test pregnancy was to examine the color of the woman's …show more content…
Some of them were lucky enough to work at home, while others were sent away by their own families to be servants for other people. The ones that were fortunate enough to say with their families would begin to learn what their parents did for a living. Boys would work in the fields, workshops, mines or wherever their other male family members worked. At first, boys would start out doing simple tasks, until the age of thirteen/fourteen when they could start doing nearly any job for their father or male relatives. Few children in the Middle Ages received any education (Ellis and Esler 233).
Higher Class Children
Children of the noble families saw very little of their parents. Once they reached a certain age, a nurse was sent to look after them. The nurse was in charge of many things: feeding, bathing, changing, singing to the baby, and taking care of it when it was sick. The nurse was more of a mother figure for the baby than the original mother. Even though the richer families could afford a nurse to provide milk for the baby, sometimes some of the mothers provided it for their child instead.
Lower Class