Out-patient maternity relief in Late Georgian Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire

Maternity care provision expanded and diversified significantly during the eighteenth-century. This was the era of development of famous lying-in hospitals in cities like London. Charities performed a significant function in the communities in which they were established. A brief research demonstrates the variety of methods of out-patient maternity provision available in two neighbouring counties: Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. One charity was courtesy of Mrs Susannah Freeman where she donated two large sums for the benefit of the poor of the parish of Abbots Langley one to be laid out in clothes for the use of the poor and for the purpose of purchasing child-bed and sheets for the use of pregnant women in the parish. A second type of maternity charity was instigated by Reverend Dolling, the vicar of Herfordshire parish of Aldengam in 1783. As there was no midwife living in the village, Dolling selected a poor widow and sent her up for instruction to the Lying-in Hospital. She has been the cause of a considerable saving in the medical bills of the parish. The most significant organization was founded in the Hertfordshire town of Ware in 1795. This charity combined the functions of both the provision of child-bed linen and the assistance of midwifery.