Almost three hundred years ago, a woman called Mary Toft was interrogated a bunch of doctors in London. She was interrogated after having given birth to a litter of rabbits. Or so she claimed.

But, in that era, one of the strangest things about the case wasn’t just the rabbits: it was that doctors — “male midwives” — were muscling into the giving birth business.

Amelia Dale teaches at Sydney University and talked about Toft in her PhD thesis.

Links from this episode:

Learn more about Mary Toft here, or listen to the BBC’s take on her story.

What Hogarth print where? William Hogarth was a visual satirist, who made fun of the scandal around Toft with this engraving

 

Songs from Midwives, Doctors and Rabbits:

Ojos Del Sol — Y La Bamba
Akogare — Super Magic Hats
Copza Luca — Adrian Simionescu and Orchestre Marin Ioan (Gajo Dilo soundtrack)
Slip Away — Kim Boekbinder

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