Wet Nurse or Milk Bank? Evolution in the Model of Human Lactation: New Challenges for the Islamic Population

The Art of Childbirth of the Midwives of Al-Andalus: Social Assessment and Legal Implication of Health Assistance in the Cultural Diversity of the 10th-14th Centuries

(1) Background: The role of Al-Andalus's women were the result of Arabization and Islamization in Spain. The 10th to the 14th centuries were a time of significant cultural diversity in the region. Female physicians and midwives were important for providing care to women. Despite existing studies, there is still a lack of focused research on the professionalization of these trades, including their requirements, intervention areas, and treatments. (2) Methods: To address this gap, we conducted a scoping review using the dialectical structural model of care (DSMC). Primary medical and legislative sources were used. (3) Results: two kinds of midwife, or qābila, were discovered, along with a woman physician, or ṭabība, who also acted as a midwife. These professions underwent diverse training and fulfilled duties as obstetricians and pediatricians. Midwives were esteemed members of society and were the sole female professionals who needed qualified training. Their performance in the courts was exemplary. Tools for facilitating childbirth and interventions related to female health were discovered in the study. (4) Conclusions: The patriarchal societies suffer from significant inequality in terms of academic training, knowledge transmission, and healthcare provision. Midwives functioned in segregated domestic and legal spaces and were responsible for providing public care to communities from the 10th to 14th centuries.

Women health providers: materials on cures, remedies and sexuality in inquisitorial processes (15th-18th century)

Background

The first inquisitorial trials were against Muslims and Jews. Later, they focused on women, especially caregivers. Progressively, they were linked to witchcraft and sorcery because of their great care, generational and empirical knowledge. The historiography of health in the 15th-18th centuries still has important bibliographical and interpretative gaps in the care provided by women.

Objective

To analyse the care provided by healers as health providers, accused by the Inquisition, justifying the importance of nursing in the diversity of community care in the 15th-18th centuries.

Method

A scoping review was conducted following the Dialectical Structural Model of Care (DSMC). A database search was conducted for the period 2013-2022. Bibliographic and legislative resources were used. Cases and convictions from Castilla la Nueva were found in the National Historical Archive and the Diocesan Archive of Cuenca.

Results

The concepts of healer, witch and sorceress envolved during the study period. They reflect and reveal the collective imaginary of the social structure. They had healing laboratories, practised psychological and sexual care. They used to accompany their therapeutic action with prayers and amulets. They shared their professional activity with their main denouncers, doctors, apothecaries and priests. They were usually women in socially vulnerable situations, who did not conform to social stereotypes.

Conclusions

They were predecessors of today's nursing, they overcame socio-cultural difficulties, although they were condemned for it. Healers did not manage to regulate their profession, but they acted as agents of health in a society that demanded them while participating in the "witch-hunt".

Midwives in Health Sciences as a Sociocultural Phenomenon: Legislation, Training and Health (XV-XVIII Centuries)

Background and Objectives: The first inquisitorial processes were developed against Muslims and Jews. Then, they focused on women, especially those dedicated to care. Progressively, they were linked to witchcraft and sorcery due to their great assistance, generational and empirical knowledge. The health historiography of the 15th-18th centuries still has important bibliographic and interpretive gaps in the care provided by women. The main objective was to analyse the care provided by midwives in the legislative and socio-sanitary context of New Castile, in the inquisitorial Spain of the 15th-18th centuries. Materials and Methods: A historical review was conducted, following the Dialectical Structural Model of Care. Historical manuals, articles and databases were analysed. Results: The Catholic Monarchs established health profession regulations in 1477, including midwives. However, all legislations were annulled by Felipe II in 1576. These were not resumed until 1750. Midwives assumed a huge range of functions in their care commitment (teaching, care and religion) and were valued in opposing ways. However, many of them were persecuted and condemned by the Inquisition. They used to accompany therapeutic action with prayers and charms. Midwives were usually women in a social vulnerability situation, who did not comply with social stereotypes. Conclusions: Midwives, forerunners of current nursing and health sciences, overcame sociocultural difficulties, although they were condemned for it. Midwives achieved an accredited title, which was taken from them for two centuries. They acted as health agents in a society that demanded them while participating in a "witch hunt".