Women's medicine in antiquity
Their ideas and practices during this time endured in Western medicine for centuries and many themes are seen in modern women's health.
Classical gynecology and obstetrics were originally studied and taught mainly by midwives in the ancient world, but eventually scholarly physicians of both sexes became involved as well.
Obstetrics is traditionally defined as the surgical specialty dealing with the care of a woman and her offspring during pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium (recovery).
Gynecology involves the medical practices dealing with the health of women's reproductive organs (vagina, uterus, ovaries) and breasts.
[2] In ancient Greece, there was also an opportunity for midwives to receive some further medical training, to become a doctor-midwife, called in the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine eras an iatromea (ιατρομαία).
During the Hellenistic era, the Library of Alexandria also served as a medical school, where research and training would take place on the body of the diseased.
It also appears that the children, male or female, of famous doctors, would also follow the medical profession, continuing the family tradition.
[5] This Greco-Roman approach differs greatly from other ancient civilizations, where women's role as medical specialists concerning gynecology and obstetrics was apparently unquestioned.
[6] Hippocrates urged against surgery as a treatment for breast cancer because he considered it harmful and found that the prognosis was much better for women who did not have the lesions removed or treated.
In his later work Diseases of Women, Hippocrates furthers the list of late-stage cancer symptoms by including deliria, dehydration, dry nipples, loss of sense of smell, and shallow breathing.
Unlike Hippocrates, Galen encouraged surgical removal of tumors and even prescribed special diets and purgation to rid the body of excess black bile.
[7] Aristotle formulated early tests for infertility by placing scented cloth in a woman's vagina for an extended amount of time and determining whether the aroma came out of the mouth or if the eyes or saliva was colored.
[8] Hippocrates formed a similar test by observing whether a scent would pass through a woman's body out of her mouth when the smell was produced between her legs while she was wrapped in a blanket.
Midwifery flourished in ancient civilizations, including Egypt, Byzantium, Mesopotamia, and the Mediterranean empires of Greece and Rome.
To obtain good midwifery habits, she will be well disciplined and always sober, have a quiet disposition sharing many life secrets, must not be greedy for money, be free of superstition to not overlook salutary measures, keeping her hands soft by staying away from wool-working as this may harden her hands and use ointments to acquire softness.
One substance involved making a paste from acacia gum, dates, fiber, honey, and other unidentified plants to create a sort of spermicide.
[13] Early physicians Galen and Dioscorides believed that women would consume willow and pomegranate kernels to prevent pregnancy as well.
[16] Soranus of Ephesus advocated for the application of ointments made of old olive oil, honey, cedar resin, and white lead on the cervix in order block the opening to the uterus.
If these combined practices failed in the prevention of pregnancy, recipes including small amounts of Cyrenaic juice, diluted wine, leukoion, and white pepper were prescribed to induce abortion.
A second method involved sitting a woman on a beer and date mash covered floor and using a proportionality equation according to the number of times she vomits.
Though she remained a virgin herself, it was said that she witnessed the pain of her mother during the birth of her brother, Apollo, and immediately assumed the position of midwife.
For example, a drink sprinkled with powdered sow’s dung was given to relieve labor pain, and fumigation with the fat from a hyena was thought to produce immediate delivery.
Despite the attempt to use science in advancing medical knowledge, the experimentation and teachings of the Hippocratic Corpus were not necessarily more effective than the traditional customs of midwifery.
Her belly was then rubbed with oils to decrease the appearance of stretch marks, and her genitals were anointed with herbs and injected with softeners such as goose fat.
For example, the midwife was to have certain tools to ensure a safe delivery, including: clean olive oil, sea sponges, pieces of wool bandages to cradle the infant, a pillow, strong smelling herbs in case of fainting, and a birthing stool.
Gentle massage was implemented to ease labor pains as cloths soaked in warm olive oil were laid over her stomach and genital area.
Soranus instructed the midwife to wrap her hands in pieces of cloth or thin papyrus so that the slippery newborn did not slide out of her grasp.
[21] Rabbinical discussions recorded in the Mishnah suggest that Jews in the Roman period may have successfully practiced caesarians on living mothers who were not in danger of dying.
Disease, a perceived need for secrecy, and social discouragement could have also been factors that lead to the decline in C-sections among early Christians in Rome.
[23] Mortality was quite high in antiquity due to a few factors: a lack of sanitation and hygienic awareness, no understanding of micro-organisms, and a dearth of effective drugs.
