Childbirth has always been a difficult time for both the mother and the child. This was due to a variety of issues, including the risk of both blood loss and infection. Due to our upright stance, humans have smaller pelvises than other animals, including our closest relatives, the Great Apes. Because of our larger brains, we have more oversized heads. Consequently, people have sought to find ways to make labor and pregnancy easier.

Male philosophers and doctors often pondered the philosophical and medical ramifications of childbirth, even though they often had nothing to do with it. In some cultures, they were even banned from participating or witnessing it. Instead, women in labor were attended to by family members and midwives who did their best to help. Before the advent of books, knowledge of midwifery was passed on from generation to generation. Midwives required extensive experience, including herbal remedies and setting up a room for the birth. Despite this, birthing remained a dangerous process in regions like the Norse lands. Even during pregnancy, Norse women were expected to keep working and return to work with little delay after the birth. The mother would nurse a child for around two years. Pregnancy and labor have always been arduous and will likely continue to be so for millennia to come.

Artist: Dayanna Knight

A viking women in labour

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Click here to learn more about what this license means

Thiss means you are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format; Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material. As long as you: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made; ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

Want more images?

We will be publishing more images in the coming months. If you would like to be alerted when they are published, please subscribe below.

Open Past

Credit: Dayanna Knight and Open Past

Want more images?

We will be publishing more images in the coming months. If you would like to be alerted when they are published, please subscribe below.

Open Past

Consider Donating

All images are FREE, thanks to our funders. If you enjoyed them and want to help us make more please consider donating. Our goal is to get 100 people to donate 5 $ or £ or € month so that we can commission new drawings each month.

Progress: 3 of 100

Click the donate button and either give a one off donation or sign up for monthly donations. Please leave your email in the notes so we can thank you. Any help is appreciated. Thank you!