The aim of the History of Medicine and Health Special Interest Group is to bring together university academics and students, and to forge links with other interested parties both within the University and externally.
Hosted by the Faculty of Health, the group seeks to promote interdisciplinary and cross-faculty research collaborations, holding online seminars each semester with invited speakers and to enable researchers to showcase their work.
Abstract
Women midwives pre-1900 are portrayed as ignorant, unsafe and poorly trained but, Highland midwife Mrs Cowper’s 1843 newspaper death-notice showed she was highly regarded for her work. Working from only this notice, Mrs Cowper was found to be internationally important in the history of women’s-midwifery. She was a professional midwife, formally trained in Edinburgh (1786) at a young age. Her rare original register, recording her nearly 4000 births, survives.
Speakers
Nursing Professor Nicola Ring and midwifery lecturer Dr Ness McHugh from Edinburgh Napier University have been researching midwife Mrs Cowper since her death-notice was discovered by chance in 2024 at a nursing and midwifery ancestry event held by ENU with the Royal College of Nursing and Scotland’s National Library. This session presents findings from their initial research conducted with Guelph University, Canada and in partnership with Caithness Archives, National Records of Scotland and the Campbell House Museum, Toronto
Email julie.tomlinson@plymouth.ac.uk for any queries.