Births: From Midwife to Physician. In pre-industrial Europe, midwives controlled the birthing process. Birth was women's domain, and midwives used techniques derived from generations of tradition and experience to assist in the delivery of babies, allowing most births to run their natural course and generally not interfering in the process. This practice was still largely followed in late-nineteenth-century Russia, where the uneducated midwife, or povitukha, assisted pregnant peasant women. Part of their help included preparing warm baths and special herbs and ointments. In wealthier households, special cloths were hung around the room and the bed for the delivery. Midwives also helped with the housework after the birth. By the nineteenth century, professional male doctors trained in medical schools open only to males began to write manuals on childbirth and gradually pushed the midwives out of the birthing process. During the eighteenth century...