Bible Dictionary
Midwife
A midwife assisted women in childbirth and cared for newborn children. The Hebrew midwives Shiphrah and Puah feared God and refused Pharaoh’s command to kill the male infants of Israel.
Definition
A midwife is a woman who attends a mother in childbirth and cares for the newborn. Duties included dividing the umbilical cord, washing the infant, salting it, and wrapping it in swaddling clothes. In earlier times midwives were often older female relatives or friends, though skilled attendants were also employed.
Biblical Usage
Midwives are mentioned in accounts of childbirth involving Rachel and Tamar and in the Egyptian bondage. Shiphrah and Puah attended the Hebrew women and resisted Pharaoh’s command concerning the male infants.
Historical Background
The Egyptian midwives probably used a double-round birthstool or birth-seat. Their duties required considerable skill, especially in difficult cases such as Tamar’s delivery.
Scripture References
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
The two midwives mentioned in Ex. 1:15 were probably the superintendents of the whole class.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>mid'-wif (meyalledheth): Those who in patriarchal times attended mothers at childbirth are so named in Ge 35:17; 38:28; Ex 1:15-22. Such attendants were probably then (1Sa 4:20), as they usually are now, the older female relatives and friends of the mother. The duties which they had to perform are enumerated in Eze 16:4: division of the cord, washing the infant in water, salting with salt and swathing in swaddling clothes. During the Egyptian bondage there were two midwives who attended the Hebrew women; from their names, they were probably Hebrews, certainly they were not Egyptians. From this passage it appears that they used a certain double-round form of birthstool called 'obhnayim, concerning which there are several rabbinical comments. It probably was like the kuru elwiladeh, or "birth-seat," still used by the Egyptian fellahin. I have not found any record of its use among the Palestinian fellahin. There is a curious passage in the Talmud (Cotah 2 b) in which it is said that the two midwives had different duties, Shiphrah being the one who dressed the infant, Puah, the one who whispered to it. One Jewish commentator on this supposes that Puah used artificial respiration by blowing into the child's mouth. The midwives must have had considerable skill, as a case like that of Tamar required some amount of operative manipulation.</p><p>The English word means originally the woman who is "with the mother" (compare "the women that stood by," in 1Sa 4:20), but very early became applied to those who gave skilled assistance, as in Raynold's Birth of Mankind, 1565.</p><p>Alexander Macalister</p>