Medieval lives : birth, marriage, death. 1/3, A good birth.

Series in which Helen Castor explores the fundamental aspects of medieval lives through birth, marriage and death. In the first episode, 'A good birth', she looks at how medieval women coped with labour and birth at a time when the spiritual life beyond death often mattered more than the earthly life. There were no anaesthetics or antispetics, so god and the saints were often called upon to intervene, especially since the pain of childbirth was seen as a pennance for the original sin of Adam and Eve. Very little information survives about ordinary medieval women although a little is known about Margaret Paston from Norfolk, through some private letters, and this is referred to throughout the programme. More is known about royal women, such as Elizabeth of York, wife of Henry VII, who is discussed in relation to the Catholic Church and later, her confinement, where she is attended only by women. The use of holy relics to bring the protection of the saints is also considered. The Church heavily influenced people's lives and provided two opposing views of womanhood through Mary, virgin mother of Christ, and Eve. Helen Castor, goes to St. Agatha's Church at Easeby in Yorkshire to look at the church murals there. In the medical world, academic religious clerics, were interested in reproduction and produced many texts. Some are mentioned here, including, The Trotula, from Italy, which combined folklore remedies with a more academic understanding on conception and childbirth, and the 15th century Wellcome Apocalypse in the Wellcome Collection, which reveals the male view on women's bodies, along with views on theology and medicine throughout a person's life. Professor Carole Rawcliffe, from the University of East Anglia, discusses this. Later, the role of the midwife is discussed by Dr. Janette Allotey, University of Manchester (also a midwife), including how some medieval academic texts bear little resemblance to reality. In very difficult births, god was invoked, often through a saint. An example using Thomas a Beckett, is given from a 12th century Winchester manuscript. The use of physical objects to bring comfort is considered at the Museum of London, where archaeologist, Professor Roberta Gilchrist, from the University of Reading, talks about a jet bowl. The Church would have approved the use of such amulets as they were seen as natural magic and part of god's creation. A 15th century prayer roll, possibly made to be used by a woman in labour, is viewed because it involves the patron saint of pregnant women and childbirth, St. Margaret. Lucyann Ashdown, a midwife and priest in Wales, discusses the use of special objects during labour, as well as fear and psychology in medieval times. After birth, times were still perilous and Roberta Gilchrist talks about the loss of a child and how emotions could override the Church's teaching regarding burial in unconsecrated ground, or even the the sacrament of baptism when the baby died in childbirth. In the medieval world, an unbaptised child would be disbarred from heaven, so the Church allowed midwives to perform a baptism if the child was dying in the delivery room (as male priests were not permitted to enter). Lucyann Ashdown talks about this religious involvement in midwifery. Changed caused by the Reformation are mentioned briefly.