Man-Midwife

Bartholomew Mosse: Barber-surgeon, soldier, midwife

Leeches, anyone?
Follow the medical career of 18th-century Irish barber-surgeon Bartholomew Mosse, educated by apprenticeship to shave beards and heal wounds. Establishing himself as a successful Dublin surgeon, Mosse might have lived there contentedly if his wife had not died in childbirth. Grief drives him away from Ireland for a career as an army surgeon on the high seas, where he accidentally discovers his true calling: midwifery. He returns to Dublin with cutting-edge knowledge gleaned from his European travels and becomes one of Ireland’s first man-midwives.
Man-Midwife is a fictional memoir inspired by true events in the life of Bartholomew Mosse, a man who abhorred the suffering he witnessed in impoverished Ireland, where midwifery was traditionally the province of uneducated women. Determined to build a place where poor and disadvantaged mothers could safely give birth, he drove himself into debt and exhaustion creating his hospital, the Rotunda, which is still in operation today and the birthplace of hundreds of thousands.
Peopled with fictional and real-life characters, Man-Midwife explores Mosse’s relationship with composer George Frederic Handel and renowned architect Richard Castle. Molly the leech-collector and her unhappy family are part of Mosse’s tale, as well as his best friend Nobbly, an artist who must endure mundane occupations in order to survive.
Bartholomew Mosse’s struggle to succeed often drew the ridicule of his peers. Centuries later, this novel celebrates a man whose dream saved countless lives.