Yep, I agree. And I hope I didn’t give the impression that they were enjoying it. (My sarcasm gets me in trouble at times.) They really were debating it from a medical standpoint and for most of history, they wanted midwives and assistants doing it. Thankfully, by the end of the nineteenth century, there were plenty of doctors that said — enough is enough…this is not an efficacious treatment for a little anxiety.

The problem I have with Hallie Lieberman’s counterargument is she claims it never happened. That doesn’t help us understand how we got here. And it also discredits Maines’ scholarship, which I found a little catty.