Catharina Cramer
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Catharina Geertuida Cramer (nee Schrader) (born early September 1656, Bentheim , Germany - died 30 October 1746, Dokkum, Holland) was a pioneering German/Dutch midwife.
Catharina Schrader was the eldest daughter of Friedrich Schrader, the court tailor to Earl Earnst Wihelm (1623-1693) in Bentheim, Germany. She married the local surgeon Earnst Cramer in 1683 with whom she had 6 children. In 1686 they moved to Hallum in Friesland. When her husband died in 1692 she began to work as a midwife to support her family. She moved to the town of Dokkum where her practice grew and she attended over 100 births a year. She remarried in 1713 to Thomas Hight , a gold and silversmith and the mayor of Dokkum. For a time her practise reduced in size but on Hight's death in 1721 she returned to it full time specialising in complicated births. She was critical of the low level of midwifery skills at the time and often cooperated with male doctors and surgeons. [1] [2]
When she retired at aged 88 in 1744 she had attended 3060 births of which 64 were twins and 3 were triplets.[1]
She recorded detailed case histories of each delivery. Her notebook , which accounts for some fifty years of practice, stresses traditional manual techniques and the avoidance of instruments. [1] It records some 4000 deliveries, 95% of which were spontaneous without intervention. Her corrected maternal mortality was 4.6 per 1000 and perinatal mortality 54 per 1000 births.[3]
Her notes were given to the Royal Dutch Medical Association and published in 1926 under the Dutch title Memoryboek van der Vrouwens. [4]
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
1. The Northeastern Dictionary of Women's Biography By Jennifer S. Uglow , Frances Hinton and Maggy Hendry. 1999 UPNE, ISBN 155553421X. Page 483. Accessed April 2008
2. Catherina Schrader (1656-1746): The Memoirs of a Friesian midwife. (Abstact) Dunn, P M , 2004 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. Accessed April 2008. At PubMed
3. Frau Cramer Entry at the Brooklyn Museum Dinner party database of outstanding women. Accessed April 2008
- Catherina Schrader (1656–1746): the memoirs of a Friesian midwife Dunn Arch. Dis. Child. Fetal Neonatal Ed..2004; 89: F560-F562
[edit] Bibliography
- Mother and Child Were Saved -The memoirs of the Friesian midwife Catherina Schrader translated into English and annotated by Hilary Marland. With introductory essays by Van Lieburg. Published by Rodopi (1987) ISBN 9062036201 View text at Googlebooks
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