Midwife Salome is a midwife at the Nativity of Jesus

Nativity of Jesus

The Nativity of Jesus, or simply The Nativity, refers to the accounts of the birth of Jesus in two of the Canonical gospels and in various apocryphal texts....

 who appears in several apocryphal Gospels, and is still depicted with a companion in Eastern Orthodox icon

Icon

An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...

s of the scene, though she has long vanished from most Western depictions. A midwife Salome appears in the infancy gospel attached to the name of James the Just, the Protevangelion of James

Gospel of James

The Gospel of James, also known as the Infancy Gospel of James or the Protoevangelium of James, is an apocryphal Gospel probably written about AD 145, which expands backward in time the infancy stories contained the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and presents a narrative concerning the birth and...

 (ch. XIV):

14 And the midwife went out from the cave, and Salome met her.
15 And the midwife said to her, "Salome, Salome, I will tell you a most surprising thing, which I saw.
16 A virgin has brought forth, which is a thing contrary to nature."
17 To which Salome replied, "As the Lord my God lives, unless I receive particular proof of this matter, I will not believe that a virgin has brought forth."
18 Then Salome went in, and the midwife said, "Mary, show yourself, for a great controversy has arisen about you."
19 And Salome tested her with her finger.
20 But her hand was withered, and she groaned bitterly,
21 and said, "Woe to me, because of my iniquity! For I have tempted the living God, and my hand is ready to drop off."

That Salome is the first, after the midwife, to bear witness to the birth and to recognize Jesus as the Christ, are circumstances that tend to connect her with Salome the disciple

Salome (disciple)

Salome , sometimes venerated as Mary Salome, was a follower of Jesus who appears briefly in the canonical gospels and in more detail in apocryphal writings...

. By the High Middle Ages

High Middle Ages

The High Middle Ages was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries . The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which by convention end around 1500....

 this Salome was often identified with Mary Salome in the West, and therefore regarded as the believing midwife.