Midwife - registration/training?

[daggers]

Information sought on the occupation of midwife - the lady concerned was born in the Furness area of Lancashire in 1798, married in Liverpool in 1820 and there for the rest of her life. The 1841 census shows no occupation, in 1851 (when she was 53) she was a midwife.
Has anyone found ways of tracing midwives' registration, once a church/diocesan affair, especially in the old diocese of Chester?
All help gratefully received.
Daggers

[Marie C..]

I do not think there was any training or registration of midwives at that time. Women learnt the skill by attending births. Some were good others not so.
Doctors were called in cases of severe difficulty or the women just died in labour.
My Gt.gt. grandmother(born 1817) was a midwife. M

[daggers]

Thanks for that, Marie. Not much hope of any more detail, then.
D

[arthurk]

You might find this book interesting - "History's Midwives" by Joan Grundy (who also lectures on this and related subjects to family history societies). According to this, midwives were licensed by bishops until about the mid-18th century, and for about the next 100 years there was no universal system of training or licensing, though these were coming about gradually over that time. The book includes a bibliography which might lead to other sources of information.

Any surviving midwives' records for the diocese of Chester might be in the Cheshire Record Office, though for the Furness district you might also need to consult Lancashire and Cumbria in case they were ever transferred.

Arthur

(Declaration of interest: I am related to the author, but have had nothing to do with the production of or proceeds from the book.)

[Marie C..]

Just my cup of tea! (the book...I shall order it.)

Daggers,
The only way you would get any info on your midwife relative would be if she was notorious I guess.
Mine was married to an army chap and judging by censuses scarcely in this country except after his retirement. She only had one child which is strange considering the times. Perhaps she delivered army wives, babies.... but I will never know.M

[Astoria]

Have a look at the A2A site if there are any records in my neck of the woods, happy to help with look ups - opening hours permitting.

PS Get a tag you grumpy old s*d

[daggers]

Thanks for all the comments. I had a feeling I had read something about bishops and licensing, but now know it was much too early for my interest.
As for the tag, I refer you to your line (at foot of message: ...all different...). Guess what my favourite programme is?
D