Sunday 9 April 2017

G = Good grief

I may have been leading you on just a little bit with the title of this post. 
I was going to call it G = Girls' bits, but  Mayim Bialik telling me why I shouldn't kept playing on my internal monologue mixed-tape. 
The most descriptive title would have been G = Gynaecology. But who's going to click on a blog link titled G = Gynaecology and expect to be entertained? Right? So the politically correct, slightly misleading, not-very-descriptive title G=Good grief won by default. 
I don't really even have much to say today, because in two out of three cases, I'm going to let the Wellcome's own interpretive text speak for itself.
And I have every confidence that you will be entertained.

Here's the first (I left my thumb in the picture for authenticity).




I'll wait while you read that again.
Now, you can't deny that's a pretty impressive example of good grief girls' bits gynaecology. 
WTF?




These next two images are extracts from a book. I took close-ups of the pics for you. Now here is the actual entry:

L0029311 Credit: 
Wellcome Library, London
Gynaecological texts, including information about conception, pregnancy and childbirth - Woman who died in childbirth on operating table, with doctor holding knife after delivering baby by Caesarean section, a nurse holding swaddled child - Seated woman (unnecessarily shown with caesarean section) talking to standing, dressed woman. 
Ink and watercolour. 1420? 


I love how the cataloguer has added a little bit of editorial comment, but I think s/he missed the key issue.

The woman on the right of both images looks like the same person, so I'm tipping she's the midwife... or maybe the wet nurse. And what I really want to know, is why the hell is the dead chick high-fiving her?




The final image for today is, without doubt, 
one of the most good grief-est of all the good-grief things  that Sir Henry collected.

No woman can stand in front of this glass case without wincing.

Forceps.

Eeeyouch...









During the month of April, I am participating in the Blogging from A–Z Challenge.

My posts will all feature images of and by the Wellcome Collection, Euston, London: the free destination for the incurably curious.


19 comments:

  1. Now that they are safe (safer) C-sections are too common.
    My mum was telling me about how they delivered me with those tong-like forceps (ughhh)
    Happy weekend
    A Piece of Uganda

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    1. Ughhh indeed.
      It's hard not to ross your legs when you stand in front of that display case. Thanks for visiting.

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  2. I dunno... having grown up around a lot of hand-gesture-talkers, I'm thinking the dead chick is going, "What the hell did you think you were doing?!?" - and the midwife is saying, "Hey, it's the Dark Ages! Whaddya want from me?"

    That is, of course, purely conjecture...

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    1. Well now you made me splutter my coffee!
      Bloody funny.
      I love when visitors respond in kind. Hope you come back soon.

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  3. Ugh, yuck. Not the best with my morning coffee.😡 Women have hell just being women.
    Perspectives at Life & Faith in Caneyhead

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  4. oh my....my morning eyesight though those were penises coming out of the eggs.....sigh....what would Freud say about that!

    I think the high five was another way of saying 'nice try'.

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  5. Good grief, Gertie's gone ga ga with this one! I think the comments will be as interesting as the post.

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  6. Definitely a wet nurse I think. Forceps haven't really changed that much over the years. They are still an instrument of torture. My advice? If the option is to keep pushing or have a forceps delivery PUSH! Yes I speak from experience.

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    1. OUUUCH
      Too funny.
      Sorry if my post made your eyes water!

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  7. Eeeyouch nicely fits all three.

    High five because the baby got out of it alive, women are clearly dispensable...

    Nilanjana
    Madly-in-Verse

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    1. Oh dear, you may well be right about women being a non-essential commodity. So you reckon it must have been a boy baby.

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  8. Ooooh, those forceps look like instruments of torture!

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  9. Indeed. And imagine the poor little bubbies who thought their whole lives would be such torture,

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  10. Well I involuntarily squeezed my legs a bit tighter as I read your post and saw those pics. Macabre! I haven't thought of that word in a long time, Wendy. But I have to admire Mr.Wellcome for his meticulous attention to detail in his collection. Those forceps at the end...ewww. I just want to get in an armor and stay there. *Nervous giggle* I love the way you write it!

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  11. You mean you don't go around high-fiving corpses? Maybe it's just me then...

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  12. Well I'm glad I've finished my dinner before I read this - made me a little queasy and I'm still trying to figure out why the woman was boiling a donkey???
    Leanne | cresting the hill

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