Jane Sharp was a 17th century English midwife. In 1671 she published The Midwives Book: or the Whole Art of Midwifery Discovered, becoming the first English woman to publish a book on midwifery. In her book, she combines the medical knowledge of the time with personal anecdote and states her belief that the profession of midwifery should be reserved for women. The book is still in print as a primary source

Primary source

Primary source is a term used in a number of disciplines to describe source material that is closest to the person, information, period, or idea being studied....

 of information about women, childbirth

Childbirth

Childbirth is the culmination of a human pregnancy or gestation period with the birth of one or more newborn infants from a woman's uterus...

 and sex

Sex

In biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...

uality during the Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

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The children's book The Midwife's Apprentice

The Midwife's Apprentice

The Midwife's Apprentice is a children's novel by Karen Cushman. It tells of how a homeless wife becomes a midwife's apprentice—and establishes a name and a place in the world, and learns to hope and overcome failure...

features a character based on Jane Sharp.