Birthstools

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A low seat on which a woman sat while giving birth, used in earlier centuries and in some traditional cultures
2. Historically, a chair with an open seat that laboring women squatted or sat upon to deliver a child
3. A special seat once used in childbirth, allowing the mother to remain upright while the baby was delivered

Etymology: "Birthstools" is the plural of "birthstool," a compound of "birth" and "stool." A birthstool was a seat on which a woman sat or knelt to give birth, a chair-like or stool-like support used in childbirth. The "stool" element comes from Old English "stōl," a seat or throne, the same root that gives "stool" its everyday sense of a backless seat. The plural simply applies to more than one such seat, as in a room or a historical collection of them. Both parts of the compound are plain English words, so the term needs no borrowing from another language to explain it.