ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 examines rate of infant death in the six parishes with a known midwife, including the issue of defining stillbirth over time. The midwives’ role in cases of infant death, the difficulty of calculating gestational age, the introduction of the bills of mortality and the opinion of historians regarding rate of stillbirth and infant death in 16th-century England are explored. The role and responsibility of midwives in cases of infant death and cases of infanticide are discussed.
