Man-midwives

I read with much interest the paper about the history of general practitioners and obstetrics.¹ The discussion about the emergence of ‘man‐midwifery’ I found of particular note. However, one comment in this section of the paper I must question.

As an Australian, I am interested in the history of the family of Matthew Flinders, the great British navigator who was the first to circumnavigate the continent, and who coined the name ‘Australia’. Flinders came from the small Lincolnshire village of Donington, where his father, also Matthew, was surgeon‐apothecary- and, in his own words, ‘man‐midwife’. Flinders Senior's diaries, account books and case reports have been collated in chronological order, by the Lincoln Record Society,² making them readily available for researchers such as me. In the JRSM paper, Loudon gives a quote from Flinders' diary, about his not having his boots off for 40 hours due to attendance at a confinement. This quote is correct, but I think Loudon draws a long conclusion in his next remark, that Flinders hated the tedium of the low fees and knowledge that the viability of his practice meant he had to attend such cases. I can find no remarks by Flinders to indicate a negative perception of his midwifery practice; indeed, one finds a sense of pride in his writings of his accomplishment of successful deliveries in sometimes difficult circumstances. I would argue that one cannot conclude that Flinders ‘hated the tedium’.

The next edition of Flinders' diaries and accounts is to be published by the Lincoln Record Society in the Spring. Sadly, these may have little reference to midwifery cases, as it seems that from 1784 on, he recorded his midwifery cases in a separate book, and this is lost.

Footnotes

Competing interests None declared