H·asidim mentions a Jew who held a Christian medical textbook in security for
a loan.^159 R. Gershom’s manual, mentioned before, recounts an event in which
it was necessary to turn to a Christian doctor when the Jewish midwife was not
successful in curing a baby injured during his circumcision ceremony. The
baby was finally cured when the mohel(circumciser) went to a non-Jewish doc-
tor and bought a bandage from him.^160
The case brought by R. Gershom suggests that one turned to Christians for
help only when other attempts failed. In his case, he tells of a Jewish midwife
who also tried to help before the Christian doctor was contacted. Other sources,
however, tell of contacting Christian practitioners immediately. For example,
Rabbi Judah b. Asher (Rosh) tells of an eye disease he had as a child, which a
Jewish wise woman healed after a Christian woman had failed to cure him.^161
These few examples display some of the many contacts that existed between
Jews and non-Jewish medical professionals. Although we find some preference
for using a Jewish practitioner, it does not seem to have been the general rule.
I would suggest one of two possibilities with regard to the employment of
Christian midwives. The first option is that Jews preferred to employ Jewish
midwives whenever possible. If so, the relative indifference of Christian law to
the employment of Christian midwives by Jews reflects the application of this
principle in practice. Another option would be that Jews employed Christian
midwives routinely, as they did Christian doctors. But as medical profession-
als, unlike wet nurses or servants, did not have to live in the home, church au-
thorities did not see this relation as problematic, and few comments were made
on the practice. I would suggest that the two options are not in contradiction;
Jews regularly employed Christian midwives, although they may have pre-
ferred Jewish professionals. Perhaps in smaller Jewish communities, where
there were no Jewish midwives, it became necessary to call upon the services
of Christian neighbors.
Research done on midwifery in early modern Europe in recent years sup-
ports many of these suggestions. For example, studies on midwifery among mi-
nority religious groups, such as the Quakers in seventeenth-century England,
reveal that they preferred to employ a midwife of their own religious group.
Protestant women also preferred Protestant midwives over Catholics. At times,
however, women of other religious groups were employed due to the lack of
“in-house” professionals or as a result of the expertise others were believed to
possess. In such cases, the groups made sure to have the woman in labor at-
tended by one of their own number at all times.^162
The fear of religious conversion of the mother during birth was real, as birth
was a time of great pain and fear. Jews, like members of other religious groups,
feared that a midwife of a different religious persuasion might convince a pan-
icked woman to convert. While Jewish sources do not mention this fear, they
often cite the words of the Talmud that warn of the possibility that the midwife
might kill the baby. However, a number of Latin sources tell of conversion
rick simeone
(Rick Simeone)
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