CHAP. II. _Of the Qualifications of the Ordinary MIDWIFE._
IT is indeed indifferent whether _Men_ or _Women_ practise this ART, so the _Practisers_ be properly adapted, and duly qualified for the Purpose of so great a WORK. As for Instance, in _France_, MEN only profess this Business; in _Italy_, and _Germany_, MEN and WOMEN promiscuously; in _England_, _Scotland_, _Holland_, &c. MEN are stiled Extraordinary MIDWIVES, being seldom or never call’d but in extraordinary _Cases_ of difficult and preternatural BIRTHS. Wherefore, upon this Account, I shall _first_ observe and denote the _Qualifications_ most requisite and absolutely necessary for _WOMEN_ practising this ART.
NOW as all _Arts_ and _Sciences_ require _Instruction_, _Application_, _Pains_, and _Time_, for qualifying any _Person_ to become a MASTER in the _Practice_ of them; so the ART of _Midwifery_ requires not the least Regard, Attention, and Information. Wherefore it is quite wrong for any _Persons_, who have not a _Body_ and _Mind_ particularly adapted to this Business, to spend their Time in _qualifying_ themselves for, and _applying_ themselves to the Performance of this good Office. For such as _These_ ought to leave _This Province_ to THOSE _Persons_, whom _Nature_ has more signally mark’d out for the Purpose.
AND that I may the better distinguish upon what I have here propos’d, I shall _first_ speak in the _Negative_, and _then_ in the _Affirmative Sense_ of the Affair; Or _first_, of her _Natural_, and _then_ of her _Acquir’d Qualifications_.
I. THEREFORE, _She_ who would discreetly undertake MIDWIFERY, ought not to begin the _Practice_ too _YOUNG_, nor continue it till grown too _OLD_: For the _one_ will want, perhaps, due _Experience_, as well as decent _Gravity_ and _Solidity_; the _other_ will, peradventure, want requisite _Strength_ and _Vigour_ of Body, as well as the Free _Exercise_, and ready _Use_ of her _Senses_.
II. SHE ought to be no _weak_, _infirm_, or _diseased_ Person, incapable of undergoing the _Fatigues_ which the Business too often requires: Such as _watching Night_ and _Day_; turning the _INFANTS_, when in a wrong _Posture_; or extracting them at length; which _Action_ frequently requires the full _Strength_ of a strong _MAN_, instead of a weak _Woman_. For _thus_ the most learned and excellent _Fabricius d’ Aquapendente_, testifies of himself, that he has often been so _weary_ and _tired_, that he has been obliged to leave the Work for his _Assistant_ to finish; and as _Daventer_ also (a robust Man) relates of himself, that in the coldest Time of _Winter_, being but thinly _cloathed_, and at a Distance from any _Fire_, his _Hair_ has been wet, and all his _Body_ in a SWEAT, and both his _Loins_ and his _Limbs_ have aked egregiously some Days after _delivering_ a Woman.