[post_page_title]Forceps were a secret tool reserved only for the Royal Family[/post_page_title]
Today, forceps are another tool in medical professionals’ arsenal, used to ensure even the most stubborn babies are extracted safely. In the late Middle Ages, though, they were the secret tools of just one family – and their use was exclusively royal. Forceps were invented in the 1600s by the Chamberlen family of “men midwives.”
However, their life-saving device was kept secret for a century and used only on royals, because the Chamberlens wished to protect their profits. Their use was so clandestine, in fact, that they’d be brought into the delivery room in a box, and wouldn’t be used until everyone else had left and the mother was blindfolded.
