page_title: Birthing chair
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Birthing chair / History
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Berceau de baptême date de 1655 et chaise d'accouchement (fabriquée en 1837 pour Anne Willig, sage-femme à Hurtigheim. Bois de fruitier, accoudoirs démontables et dossier repliable), Musée alsacien de Strasbourg.
context_page_description: A birthing chair, also known as a birth chair, is a device that is shaped to assist a woman in the physiological upright posture during childbirth. It is intended to provide balance and support. If backless, it is known as a birth stool.
  The early birthing chairs varied between having three or four legs, though three legged birthing chairs are most commonly seen. Both styles support the bottom of the women in labor and often have a slender, sloped back for comfort and to allow birthing assistants, who are positioned behind the mother in labor, to massage or support her. Often the arms of the chair have hand holds or arm rests for the mother to grip, providing extra leverage. Birthing chairs are usually 8 to 10 inches off the ground specifically to allow laboring women to brace their feet against the ground to help in pushing.
context_section_description: The birthing chair has been used for millennia. It appears in the Bible's observation:  ‘And he said, ‘When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women and see them upon the birthstool’ (Exodus 1:16). Birthing chairs took the place of laboring mothers sitting on birth attendant’s laps, as it was the previous practice. These chairs were used before male physicians dominated the delivery room. The use of the birthing chair or similar devices has been seen around the globe, not isolated to a particular region. A woman giving birth in the upright position has been seen in Asian, African, Pacific Islander, and Native American art. The birthing chair can be traced to Egypt in the year 1450 B.C.E. Pictured on the walls of The Birth House at Luxor, Egypt, is an Egyptian queen giving birth on a stool. It can also be traced to Greece in 200 B.C as it is featured on an ancient Grecian sculpted votive. Celtic items from 100 B.C.E in Britain also depict women sitting in the same upright position as if in a birthing chair. The first depiction in a woodcut from the 16thc shows a woman sitting on a stool and surrounded by other women. The three legged birth stool, sometimes called a groaning stool,  was designed to be carried disassembled, and sits low to the ground. Some examples, such as this continental birthing chair, are adjustable with the back extending so the woman could move from an upright position to a reclined position.
  Birthing chairs fell out of use after physicians began using the flat bed for women to lie on during delivery. The concept of the birthing chair has also been written in observations by anthropologist as well as missionaries.
caption: Wooden birthing chair
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