ABSTRACT
In Victorian Britain the midwife attended at births much more commonly than the doctor. In the industrial cities around 1870 midwives could attend as many as 90 per cent of all births. It was only the well-to-do who could afford doctors; in Wimbledon at this time only 5 per cent of deliveries were undertaken by midwives. 1 For the poor the midwife was cheap, easily available and one of their own class. The majority were untrained ‘Mrs Gamps’, and the typical image of the midwife was that of a boozy, ignorant slattern. For most the trade was something they had drifted into to make ends meet, sometimes combined with other part-time work, say, as washerwomen. A limited number of voluntary training places were offered by lying-in hospitals and the Obstetric Society; certificated midwives often styled themselves ‘accoucheuses’ to distinguish themselves from the Mrs Gamps, and appeal ‘upmarket’. The average general practitioner felt some threat to his livelihood from the midwives, whose trade was crowded; competition forced rates down, and many were prepared to offer shady supplementary services to draw business. Moves by doctors from the late 1860s to have midwives registered and compulsorily qualified had a strong element of self-interest; a higher calibre, and therefore scarcer breed of midwives, subordinated to doctors, would be less of an economic threat, and the criminal abuses by the Mrs Gamps were readily dilated on by doctors, who had an axe to grind; indeed, doctors had their black sheep who were just as bad. Registration finally came under the 1902 Midwives Act; all new entrants had to be qualified, but unqualified women practising regularly before the Act could continue until 1910. 2
