Women’s Healthcare and Midwifery in Hyderabad State under the Nizams: Gender, Medical Education and the Changing Culture of Maternal Care

Abstract

The history of medicine in Hyderabad State is closely connected with the institutional changes that took place under the Asaf Jahi rulers. Yet the place of women within this history has received less attention than the development of hospitals, medical education and public health administration in general. This article examines women’s healthcare and midwifery in Hyderabad State, with particular emphasis on the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It considers the importance of household-based maternity care and traditional birth attendants, the social circumstances that encouraged the demand for female medical practitioners, the entry of women into medical education, and the emergence of medical facilities intended specifically for female patients. The experiences of Hyderabad Medical School, Afzalgunj Hospital and Victoria Zenana Hospital illustrate a gradual widening of institutional healthcare for women. The career of Rupa Bai Furdoonji is particularly significant in demonstrating that women in Hyderabad entered professional medicine at a comparatively early stage. The article argues that the growth of institutional medicine did not simply displace older practices of childbirth. Instead, household care, traditional midwifery and hospital medicine existed alongside one another for a considerable period. Hyderabad therefore provides a useful setting in which to examine the relationship between gender, princely patronage, medical education and changing ideas of maternity care in modern India.