Jane Sharp

Jane Sharp was a 17th-century English midwife, who published in 1671 The Midwives Book: or the Whole Art of Midwifery Discovered, becoming the first English woman to publish a book on midwifery.

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Title page of the complete midwife's companion by Jane Sharp

Life

Little is known about Sharp outside of her book. She is thought to have practised in London, although no record exists to support this claim. Sparse evidence suggests she may come from Western England. Because she identified herself as neither Catholic nor Protestant in mid-seventeenth century England, historians believe she may have been Puritan, which fits with her ability to read and write. Her writing reveals her to be an educated woman, though perhaps not formally, and deeply knowledgeable about the matters on which she writes.

Midwifery

Early in her book, Sharp claims to have practised midwifery for thirty years. As a midwife, she would have access to male and female spheres. Personal relationships with mothers are an obvious part of the job, between birth and post-childbirth checkups, but midwives would also have the unique role of being a woman present in more public, male-dominated areas like churches and courts for Christenings and trials over sexual matters. Though men were beginning to enter the field, the vast majority of births in Sharp's time took place in the mother's home, presided over by a female midwife.

The Midwives Book: or the Whole Art of Midwifery Discovered

Sharp used knowledge passed on from the students of Hippocrates, including Aristotle and Galen, and fellow medieval writers of midwifery manuals. Firstly, knowledge was passed on through translations of the Hippocratic writers, and, secondly, through the publication of medical treatises such as Nicholas Culpeper's 1662 Directory for Midwives. This harnessed knowledge, coupled with years of experience, led to Sharp's contribution to printed text on midwifery while addressing the gender inequalities of both medical knowledge and experience during the 17th century. The targeted audience of the book is assumed to be the middle class because it was expensive.

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Jane Sharp's depiction of women in utero

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Jane Sharp's depiction of foetus in the womb

Frontispiece from the complete midwife's companion: or, the art of midwifery improved. Directing child-bearing women how to order themselves in their conception, breeding, bearing, and nursing of children…

Purpose and Use

The Midwives Book was published in 1671 and instructed women how to maintain their births. There were four editions of the book by 1725. The gave practical direction to each party involved in the birthing process. This included the mother, father, and midwife. The book consists of six parts. The first deals with female and male reproductive anatomy. The second covers the process of conception and the growth of the fetus. The third chapter describes the possible difficulties for both conception and birth. In the fourth and fifth chapters, Sharp breaks down childbirth and the period immediately after, what to do and what problems might arise. The sixth and last chapter regards life after childbirth. In addition to using the book as a practical guide to midwifery, she uses her book as a platform to express her views on women's education, male midwives, and female sexuality. The book is still in print as a primary source of information about women, childbirth, and sexuality during the Renaissance.

Sharp also includes guidance to mothers on breastfeeding, and nutritive care for infants and children along with a comprehensive list of childhood diseases and their appropriate treatments. Sharp believes and highlights the importance of working WITH nature not against it. The importance of following nature's pattern can be seen in her discussion of remedies for young women who have not experience menstruation: "…A Physician is but a helper to nature, and if he observe not nature's rules he will sooner kill than cure." The book also included complicated births accompanied by anatomical illustrations for study. Sharp also discussed venereal diseases, syphilis was especially prevalent during the 1600s.

Personal Beliefs

In her book, she combines the medical knowledge of the time with personal anecdotes and states her belief that the profession of midwifery should be reserved for women, as male midwives were becoming more common. She urges female midwives to learn various surgical and pharmacological techniques instead of depending on male physicians when complications and emergencies arise. She argues that although the knowledge attained by men from universities may carry more prestige, they usually lack the experience of midwives. Culpeper's admittance to never attending an actual birth serves a prime example. Sharp stresses that practice and experience used in combination with medical text produces the best clinician, not theoretical knowledge alone. She states, '"It is not hard words that perform the work, as if none understood the Art that cannot understand Greek. Words are but the shell, that we often break our Teeth with them to come at the kernel."'

Sharp strongly opposed the growing trend of men as midwives. It was her belief that women were naturally inclined toward midwifery. She acknowledged that men had better access to education and therefore tended to have greater theoretical knowledge of anatomy and medicine, but she decried male midwives' lack of practical understanding. She called for female midwives to end their reliance on male doctors entirely, proposing instead that midwives learn how to deal with emergencies and complications themselves. Complaining of the inadequacies of female education, she noted that "women cannot attain so rarely to the knowledge of things as many may, who are bred up in universities."

Other Midwifery Manuals

The Midwives Book drew on contemporary sources, particularly Nicholas Culpeper's A Directory for Midwives (1651) and Daniel Sennert's Practical Physick (1664). However, in doing so, Sharp corrected their misinformation and changed the attitude to reflect her own protofeminist views.

The tradition of midwifery manuals in England began with The Byrth of Mankynd, a 1540 translation of [Eucharius Rosslin]'s Der Rosengarten. From then until the publication of The Midwives Book, midwifery manual writing was dominated by men without practical midwifery experience. In lieu of consulting midwives and mothers, they acquired information from ancient Greek translations and other midwifery manuals written by men without experience. These writers exhibited a grotesque fascination with female sexuality. Their writings demonstrate their understanding of women as hypersexual, excessive, weak, and inferior beings, valuable solely in terms of their usefulness to men.

The introduction to the 1999 publication of The Midwives Book states that "For all the parallels between The Midwives Book and its male equivalents, then, the differences in detail result in a fundamental shift in the way sexuality and gender are conceptualized."

Impact

The Midwives Book: or the Whole Art of Midwifery Discovered gave invaluable advice when at a time when midwifery faced change. It was a best-seller and its popularity indicates that it was most likely a household item in the 1700s. The book is still in print as a primary source of information about women, childbirth and sexuality during the Renaissance.

The children's book The Midwife's Apprentice features a character based on Jane Sharp.