Clocks with hands: instruments, hands and parturients in a changing horizon of time

This contribution explores the intertwining history of the obstetrician's hand and of (measurable) time. In a long-term historical perspective both on the metaphorical and practical role of the hand in obstetrical discourse and on the changing relation between continuous and discontinuous time, I come to the conclusion that the introduction of certain instruments into obstetrical practice around 1750 went hand in hand with an epistemological change regarding the conception of the living body and its time modes. The obstetrical forceps, which started its career together with male obstetrics and the introduction of the lying-in hospital as a new institution of giving birth, was instrumental in implementing practical and theoretical changes in dealing with the mother's and the child's bodies, which were by no mean beneficial for them.