[91]           Evidently, Mrs. Poppins was a midwife.

 

      Midwifery was a respected profession ever since God "dealt well with the midwives" (Exodus, Chap. 1, verse 20) back in Pharaoh‘s Egypt.

 

      Since those days midwifery was practiced by men, too, and in the 17th and 18th centuries, their tools were butter, to help ease the baby´s passage, and scissors, needle, and thread, to cut and tie the umbilical cord.

 

      By the way, the fashion dictated a tight tie for baby-girls, to ensure that when they become women, their wombs would hold their babies tight. Baby boys, on the other hand, would require a dangling umbilical cord, to ensure that their reproductive organs would be well endowed.