There was more bathing because private homes in towns now had
indoor baths. The public baths came into disuse.
For childbirth, only rich women were attended by physicians. Most
physicians used talismen such as the eagle stone at deliveries.
Caesarian section almost always led to the death of the mother.
Midwives were licensed by the church and could baptize babies.
Jane Sharp wrote "The Midwives Book" with anatomical
illustrations.
Women over thirty had fewer children and the last child born was
at an earlier age than before. This was in part due to birth
control such as coitus-interruptus, long breast-feeding of a
current child and/or the taboo against sex if the wife was still
breast-feeding. Women who were rich often employed wet-nurses.
Babies seldom thrived, or even survived, without out a regular
supply of breast milk.
John Locke, an Oxford don, physician, and son of an attorney,
expressed a view that the monarchy was based on a contractual
relationship with the people. This idea which was first adopted by
revolutionists and then became accepted as orthodoxy. Furthermore,
he articulated the right of resistance, the supremacy of
legislative assemblies, and the responsibility of rulers to answer
to their subjects. He theorized that men turn to forming a civil
government when there is a need to protect accumulated property.
This, along with the protection of life and liberty, was the
primary function of government, before royal pleasure, national
pride, or foreign conquest.
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