Monthly nurse
This period, known as confinement or lying-in, would end with the mother's reintroduction to the community during a Christian ceremony called the churching of women.
However, the term "monthly" is not entirely accurate since there was no fixed time or date for the nurse's services to be provided or to end, but rather it was entirely dependent on the arrangement.
A modern version of this rest period has evolved to give maximum support to the new mother, especially if she is recovering from a difficult labor and delivery.
Historically, midwifery was a skill passed down through generations within families, with the daughter learning from her mother and gaining hands-on experience before becoming a midwife herself.
The Church of England supported that by a system of episcopal licensing, which required midwives to swear to some rules regarding contraception, abortion, and concealment of births and also to deliver the newborn infants for baptism or, in extreme cases, to perform the ceremony themselves.
However the system of episcopal licensing fell into decline over the latter part of the 17th century, ceasing to exist in London by 1720 and not much later in other areas.
Humfrey commentating in 1891 cites an interplay of factors arising during the 17th and 18th centuries with the advent of instrumentation being used in childbirth and the emergence of "man-midwives".
This raised the question of who would take care of the baby after birth whereas hitherto the roles of nurse and midwife were combined in one person.
Humfrey writing in The Nursing Record in 1901 reported that "there was little or no attempt at knowledge or instruction, and we know as a fact that ignorance, prejudice and neglect resulted in a goodly crop of errors, wrongs, and woes as regards the hapless infant".
These would be nurses representing almost every grade of the lower classes and every degree of lack of education, and one woman, I remember, could not write.
Bowman and asks for assistance in starting a training scheme for monthly nurses at the British Lying In Hospital.
Harriett was from a poor background and needing to support her wider family she found work as a Monthly Nurse.
[11] United Kingdom Reform and the 1902 Act In the late 19th century, reformers were calling not only for registration and recognition of the profession of a midwife but also for the two functions of midwife and monthly nurse to be amalgamated: "The work of midwives lies, for the most part, amongst the poor and the poor lying-in woman needs not only to be delivered, but to be visited for some ten days subsequent to her confinement".
The professional training and formal qualification of midwives, and eventually, the postnatal care offered by the National Health Service, saw the end of the monthly nurse.
