Mary Toft: The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits - European History - Extra History

Mary Toft, Mother of Rabbits! First of her name and executioner to the medical community who was obsessed with the Maternal Impression Theory. It's true that pregnancy was a mystery to modern-day medicine not so long ago. Leading to medical myths and harmful runaway media campaigns. Which is perhaps are more common in today's society than we think.

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[sarysa]

Not only surviving the infection, but still able to have actual human children. Talk about resilient...now THAT is the medical miracle here.

[DoriZuza]

I think she was extraordinarily lucky that the infection didn’t kill her, given how many times she had exposed herself to pathogens, especially in an age before antibiotics and aseptic surgery. Regarding the quackery and misinformation, I’m feeling less and less surprised nowadays.

[DragoniteSpam]

"It's not illegal to pretend to give birth to rabbits"
Going to let that roll over in my mind for the rest of the day

[davidcrijns]

This is one of the stories where I really want a verbatim transcript of the conversation with a magistrate that must have taken place, along the lines of ''Well, we arrested her... Now what am I supposed to charge her with?''.

[darter]

Early gynecology: “Here there be dragons.”

[adamenander]

In Sweden we kind of had the same story. A woman claimed that she birthed prophetic eggs. She painted them and did what Mary did.

[JayFLopez]

This is horrifying, if she was put up to it by someone this sounds like it was SA at least if not torture, and if she was doing it to herself poor Mary had some serious mental health issues that could not be addressed at the time

[aliceseverin]

I know this was supposed to be more of a "silly" episode, but given how damaging medical misinformation is, specifically with regards to pregnancy and women's bodies, I think a history of gynecology series (or something similar) would be very enlightening.

[NevsTechBits]

Wow. Surprised extra credits would touch this place in history lol

[AbsolXGuardian]

Maternal imprintation theory is one of those weird false but also kind of true in a weird way thing. Stress absolutely causes miscarriages, and being able to observe that would have strengthened the seemingly variacity of the theory. There's also preliminary research in many areas indicating that there are several traits that are determined not by genetics, but by interuterine enviroment. And we absolutely know about substances where consuming them during pregnancy will harm the fetus.

[loke]

Throwing her in jail for 3 months seems like a bad decision, what she did was weird but she did prove that a lot of "medical professionals" at the time was just quacks. I am not sure if that was what she wanted to prove or if she just was a bit odd but neither of those things have ever been illegal (even if she probably would have been burned as a witch if she did this 100 years earlier).
I am glad the judge let her go.

[schnitzel]

"the woman that gave birt hto rabbits"
"south east england..."
sounds about right

[joshuawells]

I learned about this from an episode WTF 101. In that same episode, they covered Gregor MacGregor and the Poyais Scheme and George Psalmanazar's fictional Formosa. I highly encourage y'all to cover these in future episodes.

[albertwestbrook]

18th and 19th century magicians joined in lampooning this strange event by producing rabbits from empty boxes, their pockets and eventually from borrowed top hats. They continue producing bunnies because they are small, docile animals and easily fed and trained. (The bunnies, not the magicians)

[KaiseaWings]

I'm glad Mary got something of a happy ending, seems like a messy and sad situation all around. Shoving animal parts up into your body over and over.

[emmie-ct]

Random person: “So what’s the most traumatizing thing that’s happened to you?”

Mary: “Oh. My mother-in-law shoved rabbit parts up my boo-ha to get back at some doctors.”

[Arkylie]

All right, now cover the Infantorium that was in Coney Island for like 40 years and showcased premature babies being cared for by technology that at the time seemed not just weird but (for some reason) unethical but that ended up being the stuff we used today.
Also cared for by a team of nurses with better job perks than nurses have *today* -- and all this at no cost to the parents, because the spectacle provided enough income to run the place without bilking poor people desperate to save their doomed infants.

[rackstraw]

"Mother of Rabbits" doesn't quite have the same ring as "Mother of Dragons".

[ricokurniawan]

Walpole fact: The case was cited by Robert Walpole's opponents as symbolising the age, which they perceived as greedy, corrupt and deceitful.

[erraticonteuse]

I'm disappointed that this episode is not sponsored by the Child and Teen Checkups Program of Minnesota.