Midwives
Midwives
Midwives come under the canon law of the Church in their relation towards two of the sacraments, baptism and matrimony. As regards marriage, their testimony is frequently required in cases de non consummato matrimonio, whether owing to the impediment of impotency or because a dispensation is asked super matrimonio rato tantum. In such cases, the testimony of three midwives is held sufficient in practice, since the number seven mentioned in the “Corpus Juris Canonici” (c. 4, de Probat) is not considered to be obligatory in law, though some older canonists insisted on the necessity of having the testimony of seven midwives. As regards the sacrament of baptism the office of midwives is of the highest importance. On them frequently devolves the duty of conferring this sacrament, under circumstances where no other person’s ministration is possible. Hence, the Church has always been most solicitious concerning the character of midwives and their instruction in this religious duty. Canonists teach that women who undertake the office of midwife are bound under mortal sin to learn the methods and requirements of valid baptism, as in case of necessity this duty frequently devolves upon them. There has been much legislation on this subject in various diocesan synods, whose canons place special obligations on parish priests and midwives. The former are reminded that, as midwives in conferring baptism act in place of the parish priest, he is strictly bound to in form himself whether they have sufficient knowledge to administer the sacrament validly. Some diocesan synods require that midwives, before being approved for duty, take an oath that they will labor to procure the spiritual safety of infant and mother. When a new-born child has been baptized by a midwife, the parish priest must inquire carefully whether she had the proper intention and administered the rite according to the prescriptions of the Church. If there is any reason to doubt, the baptism is to be repeated conditionally (Catch. Rom., II, ii, § 43); but if it be certain that the sacrament was properly conferred it may not be repeated (c. Majores, 3 de bapt; Conc. Trid. Sess. VI, can. ix), and only the other ceremonies are to be supplied by the parish priest. Finally, it is likewise necessary that midwives be well informed on the Church’s teaching concerning the performance of abortion.
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Ferraris, Bibl. Can., V (Rome, 1889), s.v. Obstetrices; Taunton, The Law of the Church (London, 1906), s.v. Baptism.
WILLIAM H.W. FANNING Transcribed by Bruce C. Berger
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XCopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Midwives
Egyptians: translated Exo 1:15 “midwives of the Hebrew women,” for Pharaoh would never employ Hebrew women to destroy the males of their own nation; the answer of the midwives implies they were used to attend Egyptian women (Exo 1:19). Egyptian women rarely employ them, and only in difficult cases. Much less did the Hebrew who were still more “lively.” Two sufficed: Puah (from the Egyptian pa, with a determination, “child bearing”) and Shiphrah (“prolific,” also Egyptian, cheper). Aben Ezra makes these two “chiefs over all the midwives, who were more than 500.” Pharaoh probably only desired to kill the males of the chief Hebrew, who alone would call in midwives.
The “stools” (literally two stones) mean the unique seat on which the mothers sat for parturition, as represented on monuments of the 18th dynasty, and still used in Egypt, now called kursee elwiladee (Lane, Mod. Eg. iii. 142). Lepsius (Denkmaler) copies the representation of the birth of the oldest son of Thothmes IV on the walls of Luxor. The queen receives the god Thoth’s announcement of the coming birth; she is placed on a stool, two midwives chafe her hands, and a third holds up the babe (Sharpe’s History of Egypt i. 65). God rewarded the midwives by “making them houses,” i.e. by their marrying Hebrew and becoming mothers in Israel (2Sa 7:11-27).
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Midwives
Those who assist at childbirth. God blessed the Hebrew midwives who would not obey the king of Egypt by killing the male infants. Women fill the same office in the East to this day. Gen 35:17; Gen 38:28; Exo 1:15-21.