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Social History of Medicine Advance Access originally published online on October 24, 2006
Social History of Medicine 2006 19(3):407-424; doi:10.1093/shm/hkl045
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for the Social History of Medicine. All rights reserved

Birth Attendants in Meiji Japan: The Rise of a Medical Birth Model and the New Division of Labour

Aya Homei*

* Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Manchester, Simon Building, Brunswick Street, Manchester M13 9PL, UK. E-mail: homeiaya2001{at}yahoo.co.jp


  Abstract

This article analyses two kinds of medical textbook for midwives published in Japan in the Meiji period (1868–1912), and compares them with the oldest extant guide published in the Edo period (1603–1867). Meiji textbooks, which became foundational to the rise of ‘new-midwives’, were written by a local hygiene officer in the 1880s, and later by obstetric-gynaecologists. Both these groups emerged as ‘modern’ professions in the late nineteenth century, when the government was trying to build a militarily strong, industrially competent state similar to western countries. The textbooks presented knowledge comparable to that in western counterparts. They revealed a clear departure from the Edo tradition, especially in relation to the role of midwives during the process of birth and the use of the hand. The article seeks to demonstrate that the epistemology of scientific midwifery reflected the political, social and professional position and aspirations of these two medical groups. It also argues that the emergence of ‘new-midwifery’ in Meiji Japan, which has usually been seen as part of the ‘westernisation’ of medicine, should not be interpreted in terms of a natural flow of knowledge from west to east.

Keywords: midwifery; obstetrics; ‘normal’ childbirth; westernisation; Japan; nineteenth century


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