English Birth Girdles

Know about the book -

English Birth Girdles is written by Mary Morse and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 1501514008 (ISBN 10) and 9781501514005 (ISBN 13).

In medieval England, women in labor wrapped birth girdles around their abdomens to protect themselves and their unborn children. These parchment or paper rolls replicated the "girdle relics" of the Virgin Mary and other saints loaned to queens and noblewomen, extending childbirth protection to women of all classes. This book examines the texts and images of nine English birth girdles produced between the reigns of Richard II and Henry VIII. Cultural artifacts of lay devotion within the birthing chamber, the birth girdles offered the solace and promise of faith to the parturient woman and her attendants amid religious dissent, political upheaval, recurring epidemics, and the onset of print.