Margaret Stephen

Margaret Stephen was a British midwife, midwifery teacher and author, active in London in the late 18th century, who published Domestic Midwife, one of a handful of textbooks on midwifery from that era that is by a woman. She was trained by a male student of the famous male midwife, William Smellie, and practised for more than thirty years. She may have attended some of Queen Charlotte's births. Her own pupils were all women, and she is the only female midwife recorded to have used an obstetrical machine in her instruction.

Her manual, addressed not only to midwives but to all women who might become pregnant, mixes anatomical and physiological information, instruction about care for the mother during and after labour, and non-medical topics such as strategies for protection against accusations of misconduct. Published against a background of increasing male dominance of the midwifery profession, the book promotes the idea that female midwives, particularly those who were (like Stephen) themselves mothers, were the natural default for normal births. Stephen favoured a non-interventionist approach to labour, and her book strongly criticises some male midwives for an overreliance on the use of forceps. While Domestic Midwife was not particularly well received by critics during her lifetime, the physician and medical historian James Hobson Aveling describes the book in 1872 as "perhaps the best upon the subject that has been written by any woman" in English. with Stephen being her married name. This was unusual for the time; most female midwives learned their profession by being apprenticed to a woman practitioner for 3–6 years. Towler and Bramall, Moscucci, and Leiske; In addition to medical training, she covered topics such as how a midwife could protect herself against accusations of misconduct. She suggested that her students should write down notes on her instruction. According to the British academic Janette C. Allotey, she understood the current medical views on childbirth better than her female peers. Texts written by men during this period, such as A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery by Smellie (1752–64), A Treatise of Midwifery by Alexander Hamilton (1781) and An Introduction to the Practice of Midwifery by Thomas Denman (1788), criticise the traditional practices of midwifery, denigrate the natural experience of women in matters of pregnancy and childbirth, and emphasise the advantages of anatomical and physiological instruction not generally then open to women, as well as the use of obstetrical instruments.

It was against this background that Stephen brought out her own textbook, Domestic Midwife; Or, The Best Means of Preventing Danger in Child-birth Considered in 1795. It was one of a handful of manuals on the topic in English to be published by a woman; a total of six examples came out in 1671–1798, a fraction of the number published by men. Earlier examples include A Complete Practice of Midwifery by Sarah Stone (1737) and A Treatise on the Art of Mid-wifery by Elizabeth Nihell (1760); Stone's book has a greater focus on case studies, while Nihell's text forms a "polemic against men-midwives". Additionally, a few women wrote manuals in France and Germany, including Justine Siegemund (1636–1706), Angélique du Coudray (1714/15–1794) and Marie-Louis La Chapelle (1769–1821). that promoted to women the idea that female midwives, particularly those who were themselves mothers, were the natural default for normal births. Stephen recounts a brief history of midwifery, asserting that it was Louis XIV's mistress who, in 1663, started a trend to employ male midwives.

Stephen excoriates some male midwives for questioning the character and competence of female midwives, and accuses some who teach female students of overcharging them compared with male students and also of withholding information from them. and states that they should never be used without the woman's knowledge, a practice advocated by Smellie. In general Stephen advocates for the woman making her own decisions where possible. There are eleven chapters, as well as introductory material. in reaction to a move towards intervening when a first labour exceeded 24 hours. The British physician and medical historian James Hobson Aveling, in the earliest history of female midwifery in Britain, published in 1872, describes the book as "perhaps the best upon the subject that has been written by any woman" in English.