SOURCE: Tucker, Holly. “Fairies, Midwives, and Birth Spaces in the Tales of Madame D'Aulnoy.” In Classical Unities: Place, Time, Action, edited by Erec R. Koch, pp. 89-94. Tübingen, Germany: Gunter Narr Verlag, 2002.

In this essay, Tucker draws a parallel between the depiction of fairies in d'Aulnoy's fairy tales and contemporary beliefs about midwives.

In oral and literary contes de fées, fairies are no strangers to the drama of birth. Fairies do more than attend the birth scene in these tales, they also orchestrate every stage of reproduction. They predict conception and, if angry, cast spells of infertility. They determine the circumstances and the outcome of pregnancy by providing—or withholding—aid to the mother to be. Following labor, they attend to the needs of the newborn and dictate the child's path in life through their gifts, beneficent or malevolent. And in true fairy fashion, woe be...