Great posts re: forceps here!

I just wanted to add that the growth in use of forceps coincided with the practice in the Victorian era, of literally tying women to the bed, on their backs, during labour. They were actually invented around 1600 and kept a family secret for over 100 years, after which they were in more common use in cases such as face or brow presentations, where mum might be genuinely exhausted by pushing so long (i have a friend who delivered her brow baby vaginally after a 7 hour labour - it was her 6th kid and nearly 6 hours of that labour was pushing!). They remained in this "last-resort" use for another century or 2 and then grew in popularity as obstetrics became a man's realm (rather than women using female midwives) in the Victorian era.

The Victorians removed sex and sexuality from as many areas in life as possible and did much damage to the knowledge about and culture surrounding birthing in the process. Which of course, given it meant mum is pushing baby uphill through a 20% smaller pelvic opening, led to a lot of "stuck" babies! In the 1950's it was still not uncommon to wait until a woman was fully dilated then give her general anaesthetic and remove the baby with forceps without even letting her push. The use of forceps exploded during the Victorian era and yet mortality for mums and babies under 12months didn't change during Victoria's reign because birth injury to both and serious infection in mum (due to dirty instruments and poor hygiene practice) grew as fast as deaths due to "stuck" babies fell. Sometimes science makes more problems than it solves.

Bx