The Material Culture of Childbirth in Late Medieval London and Westminster

In the Middle Ages, childbirth was a major event that brought women together and generally excluded men. Most women relied on local midwives and their female neighbors to get them through this event. Art historians working on Renaissance Italy have studied the elaborate material culture surrounding childbirth, arguing that it gave men access to the process, even though they were excluded from the birthing chamber. Through the ways husbands clothed their wives, outfitted the birthing chamber, and decorated the ceremonial childbirth trays that carried food to the newly delivered mother, new fathers expressed their concerns for lineage and a male heir; moreover, they connected childbirth to the masculine value of civic virtue. In England, scholars have commented on the elaborate preparations for royal births, but have not as yet focused on the material culture of childbearing among more ordinary women.

This paper will look at the material culture of childbirth in late medieval Westminster, arguing that childbirth was a major preoccupation of Westminster, and one that becomes evident only by considering the material culture that surrounded it. Because of its proximity to the royal court, and the nearly constant concern by the royal family for male heirs, inhabitants of medieval Westminster had plenty of opportunities to observe and emulate preparations for royal births. The parish was also dedicated to St. Margaret, the patron saint of childbirth, and several parish ornaments addressed female members’ fertility and childbirth concerns. Moreover, the Abbey boasted a belt of the Virgin Mary among it relics, which they loaned out to expectant queens. Unlike in Italy, however, the material culture of childbirth was in the hands of women, providing them with a means of participating in Westminster’s public life, while simultaneously using the material culture of childbirth to solidify relationships across generations of women.