ABSTRACT
As the civilisations and cultures of Greece and Rome died out, what unity and stability there was in Europe disappeared as various barbarian races struggled for supremacy. A Japanese Empire can be dated at around 600 BC, but ancient Japan, in its ‘mythological period’, was — like China — dominated by legend, superstition and birth custom. In the Buddhist culture between 700 and 800 AD Buddhist nuns treated diseases with medicines and presumably acted as midwives. Population growth was minimal because both men and women were killed by invaders; life expectancy was short and a significant number were monks and nuns and therefore not free to raise families. It can therefore be deduced that the experience of those women practising midwifery, however few or many there were, was likely to have been limited. The event of birth and the beginning of new life has always engaged man’s imagination, and its peril and secrecy have evoked wonder and superstition.
