In the Middle Ages, birthing women and hopeful mothers were not honoring their saints purely out of religious duty. Like the appeals made by women during the antiquity to midwife goddesses, prayer and supplication were ways to affirm intentions for healthy pregnancies, calm labors, and living children. Where ancient midwives had summoned divine assistance by uttering incantations, medieval maternity caregivers called upon saintly mothers by reciting rhythmical charms. A popular charm known as the *peperit*—Latin for “gave birth to”—invoked the Virgin Mary, her mother Anne, and her cousin Elizabeth, while imploring the baby to “leave your mother’s womb without you or she dying.” If a priest was called to bless the birth, he chanted the peperit from a piece of parchment “three times over the woman who is laboring.” Her attendant then bound the parchment gently around her belly. An Anglo‑Saxon version stated that the charm should be inscribed on to a piece of wax and tied to the birthing woman’s right foot.…