Women in childbirth were assisted by older, experienced women, much like midwives in medieval villages. (According to some accounts, when she went into labor the pregnant woman would stop whatever she was doing, only to pick it up as soon as the child was born.) Children were nursed for two to three years. In that period of time further pregnancies were avoided, as having two children nursing at once would result in the starvation of one or both; if they occurred, they were terminated. Childbirth outside of marriage was generally frowned upon, although in some cases illegitimate children were prized as proof of fertility. If a child was born outside of marriage, when (if) its mother married it was adopted by her husband as his child too.
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