"This book is the first comprehensive and detailed study of early modern midwives in seventeenth-century London. Until quite recently, midwives, as a group, have been dismissed by historians as being inadequately educated and trained for the task of child delivery. The Midwives of Seventeenth-Century London rejects these claims by exploring the midwives' training in an unofficial apprenticeship and their licensing by the Church. Dr.

Evenden also offers an informed depiction of the midwives in their socioeconomic context by examining a wide range of seventeenth-century sources."--BOOK JACKET.