I recently finished reading, "Get Me Out, a History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank" by Randi Epstein, MD. A very interesting chapter describes the work of Dr. J. Marion Sims and his band of slave women, whom he performed repeated different vaginal surgeries upon. The book describes in detail the surgeries, the various witnesses (anyone in the neighborhood could watch) and the degree to which the unknown slave women suffered in his hands, all in the name of science. Admittely, his surgical knowledge did save many future women's lives, but as the father of modern American gynecology, he had a very unusual method.
Also, Dr. Sims developed the modern speculum, using various spoons, according to this book and of course, the Sims position.
The book also covers twilight sleep for childbirth and how women were blindfolded, drugged, and strapped down, legs apart and tied into the stirrups for childbirth. And most feminists of the time period approved of this method.
A very interesting book on gynecology and its history. I would highly recommend it to interested Doctors and their patients!
Lady Teddy, the book worm