Women : pregnancy and childbirth in Gozo, 1860s-1914

Abstract

The intention of this dissertation is to examine experiences which have always been central to women's life: pregnancy, childbirth and childcare. This is done with a special focus on Gozitan women during two periods: the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. A discussion of women's role in the Maltese society is presented, and then followed by an analysis of the detailed registers of births that occurred at the Victoria Hospital during the periods 1867-1872 and 1910-1914. Subsequent to pregnancy and childbirth, importance then is shifted on the baby, while bringing into the fore social and cultural attitudes towards the upbringing of the infant. Here a conflict emerges between the medics' modem methods and the parents' traditional methods of caring for the health of the child, starting with different attitudes as to the way to feed babies, to the type of clothes children were to be dressed in, but also on the way to prevent and medicate disease present in children during the 19th and 20th centuries which lead to a high infant mortality.