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IMAGE: Medieval English Birth Scroll. MS.632 (c. 1500), Wellcome Collection. The girdle contains prayers and invocations for safe delivery in childbirth. Biomolecular evidence supports its active use. view more
Credit: Image courtesy of Wellcome Collection.
Childbearing in medieval Europe was a highly perilous time with considerable risks for both mother and baby.
Difficulties occurring during childbirth or through postpartum infection, uterine prolapse or other complications caused a high death-toll for women.
The Pre-Reformation Church in England offered numerous talismans or relics to pregnant women hopeful for a safe delivery; the most oft-recited of these items loaned out by monasteries to their parishioners is a birthing girdle.
bulletin. i looked at my watch and seen it was a couple minutes before 10:00. there was a pastry table, and i d made my way over to the table, just george and i. i was facing more towards the sanctuary. george had his back to the sanctuary doors. out of my peripheral vision, i noticed somebody coming up to the table. so i looked. just as i looked up, i seen scott roeder put a gun up to the side of george s head and fire one shot. i heard a pop, just like a firecracker. there was a considerable amount of evidence of bleeding that was occurring. i did start a resuscitation on dr. tiller in an effort to see if we could get response. just seconds after shooting dr. george tiller in the head, scott roeder turns and runs out of the reformation church. he is pursued by two men.