Birthstool

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A specially designed seat that helps support a woman during labor and delivery
2. A chair meant to provide comfort and support while a woman is giving birth
3. A piece of furniture intended to aid childbirth by allowing a woman to sit in a position conducive to labor

Etymology: A birthstool was a real piece of furniture: a low, often cushioned chair, sometimes with a hole or a cut-away seat, in which a woman sat while she gave birth. The word is simply a compound of "birth" and "stool," the second element being the Old English "stōl," a seat or chair, which is also the root of the modern "stool" for a seat without a back or arms. Put together, the term names exactly what it describes: a stool for childbirth. The design made sense for its purpose. Sitting upright, often supported from behind, was thought to help labour progress, and the stool gave a midwife or attendant access to the woman during delivery. Birthstools appear in histories of midwifery and in the furnishings of past households, and the word has stayed in use for the object that it names.