ABSTRACT In this article, I will explore how legalized Finnish midwives acted as expert witnesses in court hearings before 1809, how they worded the statements they gave in court, on what grounds they decided a woman was pregnant or had given birth, and what signs they considered as indicating a miscarriage or the birth of a full-term infant. Their work as expert witnesses relied on their midwifery training as well as their learned knowledge of the anatomy of the female body and the physiology of birth. Ultimately, their knowledge was supported by contemporary guidebooks on midwifery and forensic medicine. As expert witnesses, the trained and legalized midwives of the eighteenth century can be seen as having been legally literate women, who had a duty to provide oral or written evidence to the court and other instances who demanded it. Midwives were capable of using understandable medical and legal terminology in terms of the processing of the court case in their testimony. The forensic examinations carried out by legalized midwives and the expert witness statements they gave also demonstrate the professional skills and expertise of these women.. Their testimonies also show that they were familiar with the characteristics of infanticide referred to in the Swedish medical and forensic literature.

中文翻译：

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助产士在 18 世纪芬兰法院中作为专家证人

摘要 在这篇文章中，我将探讨合法的芬兰助产士如何在 1809 年之前的法庭听证会上充当专家证人，他们如何在法庭上发表声明，他们根据什么理由决定一名妇女怀孕或分娩，以及他们有什么迹象被视为表明流产或足月婴儿的出生。他们作为专家证人的工作依赖于他们的助产培训以及他们对女性身体解剖学和出生生理学的了解。最终，他们的知识得到了当代助产学和法医学指南的支持。作为专家证人，18 世纪经过培训和合法化的助产士可以被视为具有法律知识的妇女，她们有责任向法庭和其他要求提供口头或书面证据的人提供口头或书面证据。助产士能够在他们的证词中使用易于理解的医学和法律术语来处理法庭案件。由合法助产士进行的法医检查以及她们提供的专家证人陈述也证明了这些妇女的专业技能和专业知识。她们的证词还表明，她们熟悉瑞典医学和法医文献中提到的杀婴特征。