TOPICS: Length of pregnancy Terme de la grossesse
- Some critical studiesQuelques études critiques:
- Bates, A., Emblematic Monsters: unnatural conceptions and deformed births in Early Modern Europe, Amsterdam, 2005.
- Berriot-Salvadore, E., Un Corps, un destin. La femme dans la médecine de la Renaissance, Paris, 1993.
- Blumenfeld-Kosinski, R., Not of Woman Born. Representations of caesarean birth in Medieval and Renaissance culture, Ithaca New York , 1990.
- Broomhall, S., Women's Medical Work in Early Modern France, Manchester and New York, 2004.
- Gélis, J., L'Arbre et le fruit. La naissance dans l'occident moderne XVI e -XIX e siècle , Paris, 1984.
- Green, M., Making Women’s Medicine Masculine: The Rise of Male Authority in Pre-Modern Gynaecology, Oxford, 2008.
- King, H., Hippocrates' Woman. Reading the female body in Ancient Greece, London, 1998.
- Laurent, S., Naître au Moyen Age. De la conception à la naissance : la grossesse et l'accouchement, Paris, 1989.
- McTavish, L., Childbirth and the Display of Authority in Early Modern France, Aldershot, 2005.
- Park, K., The Secrets of Women: gender, generation, and the origins of human dissection, New York, 2006.
- Perkins, W., Midwifery and Medicine in Early Modern France: Louise Bourgeois, Exeter, 1996.
- Schleiner, W., Medical Ethics in the Renaissance, Washington D.C., 1995.
- Tucker, H., Pregnant Fictions : Childbirth and the Fairytale in Early Modern France, Detroit, 2003.
- Wilson, A., Childbirth in England 1660-1770, London, 1995.
- Wilson, D., Signs and Portents. Monstrous births from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, London and new York, 1993.
- Worth-Stylianou, V., Les Traités d'obstétrique en langue française au seuil de la modernité, Geneva, 2007.
- Louise Bourgeois
- Observations by the Queen’s midwife on births she presided (1609-1617-1626)Les observations de la sage-femme de la Reine sur les accouchements qu’elle a présidés (1609-1617-1626)
- Jacques Bury
- The Experiences of a Surgeon Skilled in Difficult Deliveries (1623)
Les expériences d’un chirurgien specialisé dans les accouchements difficiles (1623)
- André Du Laurens
- The first physician to the King gives his opinion on some remarkable cases (1613)Le premier médecin du roi donne son avis sur des cas singuliers (1613)
- Théophile Gelée
- A Doctor from Dieppe Relates an Aborted Birth and Successful Caesarean Operation (1622)Un médecin dieppois raconte une naissance avortée et une opération césarienne (1622)
- Laurent Joubert
- The Chancellor of the Faculty of Medicine at Montpellier
gives his opinion on popular errors about conception,
pregnancy and childbirth (1578)
Le Chancelier de la Faculté de Médecine de Montpellier
donne son avis sur des erreurs populaires autour de
la génération, la grossesse et l accouchement (1578)
- Jean Liebault
- The author of several medical compilations records a number of remarkable births (1582)
L’auteur de plusieurs compilations médicales raconte quelques naissances remarquables (1582)
- Simon de Provanchières
- A provincial doctor relates an aborted and monstrously delayed birth (1582)Un médecin provincial raconte une naissance avortée et monstrueusement retardée (1582)
- Jean Riolan
- A famous anatomist recounts the uncovering of several exceptional pregnancies (1629)
Un anatomiste célèbre raconte plusieurs grossesses exceptionnelles (1629)
- François Rousset
- A physician defends the use of caesarean operations on living women (1581)Un médecin défend l’opération césarienne sur des femmes vivantes (1581)
The length of pregnancy is widely debated in both medical and legal circles, since there is a widespread suspicion that a woman newly widowed might seek to cheat the rightful heirs of their inheritance by conceiving an illegitimate child in the months immediately after her husband's death. Most physicians follow Aristotle and Pliny in estimating the normal length of a pregnancy to vary between seven and eleven months. A number of theories are advanced in support of this wide variation. Some believe that a particularly healthy and lively foetus may be ready for birth at seven months, while others claim that a larger foetus would require ten or eleven months to reach maturity in the womb. There is general consensus, however, on the different rates of development of male and female foetuses: girls develop more slowly because, according to humoral theory, their temperament is wetter and colder.