V. Belova A.

THE ORGANIZATION OF CHILDBIRTH AND OBSTETRIC AIDS IN NOBILIARY ENVIRONMENT IN RUSSIA AT THE 18TH – THE MIDDLE OF THE 19TH CENTURY

Authors

V. Belova A.

Keywords:

history of everyday life, women’s everyday, gender, childbirth, having a child, obstetric aid, the lying-in woman, Russian noblewomen, the Russian noble culture.

Abstract

The article is an analysis of the unexplored problem of the organisation of childbirth and obstetrics as a central part of a maternity rite in the Russian noble culture at the 18th – the middle of the 19th century. Basing on archival materials, unpublished and published sources of personal origin, publicistic and literary texts are analyzed various types of childbirth, their perception and description by noblewomen as experiences of women's everyday life, their symbolism and functions in the context of lifeycle rituals. Special attention is paid to the issue of establishing of the professional obstetrics in Russia, taking into account foreign practice. Methodological approaches of history of everyday life and gender history have allowed to rethink the influence of childbirth and the relation to them on the system of values of the noblewoman and consolidation of existing gender system. The author arrives at a conclusion about inversely dependence between active behaviour of the lying-in woman and her social status.

THE ORGANIZATION OF CHILDBIRTH AND OBSTETRIC AIDS IN NOBILIARY ENVIRONMENT IN RUSSIA AT THE 18TH – THE MIDDLE OF THE 19TH CENTURY