'This carefully crafted book presents the reader with page after page of impeccably researched detail which brings to life the hard-working and often clever and well-reputed midwives of seventeenth-century London. This book is a must not only for scholars working on the history of midwifery and childbirth, but is also essential reading for all those with an interest in early modern women's lives and work.' Hilary Marland, University of Warwick