ramonmercado
CyberPunk
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2003
- Messages
- 58,246
- Location
- Eblana
Old style birthing aids.
Medieval ‘birthing girdle’ contains delivery fluid, milk, and honey
By Andrew CurryMar. 9, 2021 , 7:01 PM
More than 500 years ago, an anxious woman faced one of the most dangerous moments known to medieval medicine: childbirth. To help her survive, she wrapped a 3-meter-long belt of parchment around her heaving belly, hoping the prayers and religious symbols that covered it would deliver her—and her baby—safely through the ordeal. Now, scientists examining the stitched-together sheepskin parchment, from 15th century England, have found that she was still wearing it when she went into labor.
“Splashing blood, birthing juice—in this case, the object contains the record of its own use,” says Kathryn Rudy, a historian at the University of St. Andrews who was not involved in the research. “That an object’s biography can be self-recording is thrilling.”
In the Middle Ages, it was frighteningly common for women and their children to die in labor. Medieval texts mention girdles lent to women by religious authorities to protect them during pregnancy and childbirth. Fashioned out of parchment or paper, they were a combination of prayer book and magic charm. The charm in question—Manuscript 632—had an unusually long, thin shape, suggesting it was intended to be wrapped around the body.
Its purpose was no mystery: In addition to the names of the apostles and saints associated with childbirth, the 332-by-10-centimeter manuscript features a promise that “yf a woman travell wyth chylde gyrdes thys mesure abowte hyr wombe and she shall be delyvyrs wythowte parelle.” (“If a woman travailing with child girds this measure about her womb, she shall be delivered safely without peril.”)
To see whether the girdle might contain evidence for its use, Sarah Fiddyment, a postdoc studying ancient proteins at the University of Cambridge, and her colleagues examined it. They applied a technique they had previously used to extract collagen from ancient parchments—and identify which animals they were made of. ...
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/202...ly_2021-03-10&et_rid=394299689&et_cid=3694801
Medieval ‘birthing girdle’ contains delivery fluid, milk, and honey
By Andrew CurryMar. 9, 2021 , 7:01 PM
More than 500 years ago, an anxious woman faced one of the most dangerous moments known to medieval medicine: childbirth. To help her survive, she wrapped a 3-meter-long belt of parchment around her heaving belly, hoping the prayers and religious symbols that covered it would deliver her—and her baby—safely through the ordeal. Now, scientists examining the stitched-together sheepskin parchment, from 15th century England, have found that she was still wearing it when she went into labor.
“Splashing blood, birthing juice—in this case, the object contains the record of its own use,” says Kathryn Rudy, a historian at the University of St. Andrews who was not involved in the research. “That an object’s biography can be self-recording is thrilling.”
In the Middle Ages, it was frighteningly common for women and their children to die in labor. Medieval texts mention girdles lent to women by religious authorities to protect them during pregnancy and childbirth. Fashioned out of parchment or paper, they were a combination of prayer book and magic charm. The charm in question—Manuscript 632—had an unusually long, thin shape, suggesting it was intended to be wrapped around the body.
Its purpose was no mystery: In addition to the names of the apostles and saints associated with childbirth, the 332-by-10-centimeter manuscript features a promise that “yf a woman travell wyth chylde gyrdes thys mesure abowte hyr wombe and she shall be delyvyrs wythowte parelle.” (“If a woman travailing with child girds this measure about her womb, she shall be delivered safely without peril.”)
To see whether the girdle might contain evidence for its use, Sarah Fiddyment, a postdoc studying ancient proteins at the University of Cambridge, and her colleagues examined it. They applied a technique they had previously used to extract collagen from ancient parchments—and identify which animals they were made of. ...
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/202...ly_2021-03-10&et_rid=394299689&et_cid=3694801