In May of 1557, the German countess Dorothea of Mansfeld (1493–1578) waited anxiously for her daughter-in-law to give birth. In a letter to her friend and patron, Electress Anna of Saxony (1532–1585), she apologized that she would not be able to travel to Dresden for the upcoming Pentecost celebration because of the uncertain timing of the birth: ‘She goes around quite heavily, and by twelve strikes of the clock, she is always hot and tired […] with the help of God, she will have lain [given birth] in either eight or fourteen days, but she is not sure of her calculation, and I cannot move from her until God has helped her from her burden.’ In a postscript, Dorothea added,

She began her calculation on the 25th of August in the fifty-sixth year [1556]. Her first calculation was made after the conventions of our women, and according to that, I give her eight days. But one cannot know, as Your Grace is well aware. According to the movement [dem regen nach], she will have lain in eight days, as I have calculated. But if the calculation does not follow the movement, she will not come before six or eight days after Pentecost [June 6].

This statement stands out for several reasons. It suggests that Dorothea felt confident in canceling a trip to visit her most important ally out of her duty to stay by her daughter-in-law in childbed, and it provides an insight into the period of anxious waiting at the end of pregnancy.