BordesleyExile
master brummie
Thank you, Mike. So it was considered worthy of comment that the finder was in liquor? Rather outside the case, I would have thought.
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68 Long Acre, Nechells Ann Pinson, midwife
- Thread starter Nicholas
- Start date
S
Seabird
Guest
I've just found this thread - how fascinating!
One thing that occurs to me is that all 11 babies may not have been natural births, as 'midwives' sometimes also provided an abortion service. We forget that, in those hard times, another mouth to feed was not always welcome and abortions were carried out a lot more often than we'd like to think, some quite late in the day.
One thing that occurs to me is that all 11 babies may not have been natural births, as 'midwives' sometimes also provided an abortion service. We forget that, in those hard times, another mouth to feed was not always welcome and abortions were carried out a lot more often than we'd like to think, some quite late in the day.
Nicholas
master brummie
It does make you wonder how frequently this sort of thing went on..... abortion or peculiar burial rites surrounding (relatively) innocent still-birth, etc, for that matter. As for dates for the former, I saw a documentary mention on the following a brief while ago..... It makes grim reading matter: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10384460 (Hope the link will be excused by admin, but I'm not sure what links aren't allowed, etc?)
All the best,
Nick
bit of a time line on this case folks...im doing a bit of research on long acre and nechells in general as my sister has lived in nechells park road and now long acre for over 30 years now and is interested in the history of it..anyhow if it was concealed buriels or abortions or maybe a bit of both this woman was performing reading one of these snippets the judge didnt think much of her..fascinating reading though and i would think quite typcical of the times...lyn
dated 20th july 1878
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Wendy
Guest
I think this was not uncommon Lyn. There is a fascinating article in the November newsletter of The Friends Of Key Hill and Warstone Lane, about a lady undertaker a Mrs Knowles who had several babies bodies in the cellar of her house in Newtown Row.
sistersue61
master brummie
I find this quite sad - while I know as a midwife she should have promoted life and care, no-one knows what state the mothers of the babes concerned was in, to not want/be able to bring up her child must have been dreadful for her, so was Ann Pinson trying to help her state of mind by getting rid of her baby? It could have been an aborted baby, again, did she qualify her actions by acting to preserve the mothers sanity and life, it was a sin to become with child if the father was not round, yet "ladies of the night" were also common too, to get a little money for food etc,and found themselves pregnant.
I suppose the true reasons will never be known, but I like to think she was acting out of empathy for the mothers, maybe I am just too soft lol!
Sue
I suppose the true reasons will never be known, but I like to think she was acting out of empathy for the mothers, maybe I am just too soft lol!
Sue
1878..no birth control..bad housing..single and married women getting pregnant year after year..ladies of the night getting pregant..never enough food to go around as familys became larger and larger by the year...by todays standards awful but thats how it was and when we come to think about it some 70 to 80 years later in the 1950s and 60s back street abortions were rife so what chance did they have in 1878....but as i always say thats history...
lyn
lyn
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