Emergency baptism

V Welcome and bounding

If parturition enables a baby enter the world, baptism facilitates eternal light. In many a testimony, the midwife oversees both. In some decades of the 17th century, up to a sixth of all newborns received emergency baptism a short time after being born or even before they had been completely expelled from their mother’s womb. When a foetus was extracted from a woman who died during birth, the operation was carried out for the sake of the sacrament. No means should be spared to open the path to salvation. Therefore, the first assessment of the baby’s condition, given by the midwife, was of great bearing. When she judged a newborn’s life in danger she had to act quickly and with resolution.

Thus, sacramental care impinged on the birthing scene, and birth was suffused with religious concern. This in turn enhanced the role of the midwife and her status as a female authority. Woe betide the one accused of acting carelessly or believed to have distorted the ritual in the name of the devil! [Wolfram Aichinger]