Women and Medicine in the Middle Ages/Renaissance

Women and Medicine in the Middle Ages/Renaissance

Introduction

Throughout the early Middle Ages, medicine was practiced by women almost to the extent that the men (Green, 1989). The practice of women was restricted neither to female patients nor to obstetrical cases. Unluckily, on one occasion medicine faculties of university were instituted during the thirteenth century, women were expelled from higher medical education (Green, 1989) and, consequently, form the most esteemed and potentially productive range of practice. It is significant to indicate that the definite number of women medical practitioners is most likely much larger than documented. It is likely that a number of more females engaged in art of midwifery and healing (Harley, 1990).

Discussion

The Middle Ages/Renaissance offered 3 choices to the women in the medical line of work nurse, midwife, or practitioner (Green, 1989).

A female medical practitioner has regularly turned out to be a controversial personality; however this depended on the locality within Europe. For instance, in Germany there were as such no set of laws for the practice of medicine. In contrast, English female practitioners were not given admissions to universities and, consequently, their knowledge was restricted to what they could discover or learn from their male contemporaries (Horden, 1988). However, a number of female doctors have played their role in the progress of medicine, counting the Abbess Hildegard, whose writings offer guidance on both psychological and physical health advice (Brogan, 1997). Abbess Hildegard was a strong noble-born female who spent the major part of her living in Benedictine houses (Harley, 1990). Her independent, educated and active mind, proficient understanding, and literary power let her penned down a range of works. Hildegard is most well-known for her works in relation to her visions in addition to her compilation of medicinal advice. Her philosophy for medicine was deeply based on that of the conventional world, comprising of the Greek philosophy of 4 fundamentals (Horden, 1988).

Women midwives were a much demanded doctors focusing on female health. Amongst the famous midwives of middle ages was Trotula who enjoyed immense recognition in Salerno because of her achievements in the medical society. She wrote De Passionibus mulierum, which demonstrated her acquaintance with the subject matter together with some understanding of surgeries (Brogan, 1997). The midwives of Middle Ages introduced, developed, and/or chosen the simple and further natural techniques. For instance, one of the most frequently used procedures for inducing birth was making use of pepper to incite sneezing, which would bring about birth. A variety of comforting herbal remedies were utilized, fumigations and herbal baths, and yet tampons were initiated by the midwives of that time. So as to become a midwife, a woman was educated by other senior midwives or was brought in into the skill by husbands or fathers who were associated with the field of medicine.

Medieval nurses were mostly females who looked after the unwell attending to the further basic requirements of those admitted in the hospitals. Majority of these females tied with monastic orders; however ...