Pregnancy, Delivery, Childbirth

by Nadia Filippini

This book reconstructs the history of conception, pregnancy and childbirth in Europe from antiquity to the 20th century, focusing on its most significant turning the emergence of a medical-scientific approach to delivery in Ancient Greece, the impact of Christianity, the establishment of the man-midwife in the 18th century, the medicalisation of childbirth, the emergence of a new representation of the foetus as "unborn citizen", and, finally, the revolution of reproductive technologies. The book explores a history that, far from being linear, progressive or homogeneous, is characterised by significant continuities as well as transformations. The ways in which a woman gives birth and lives her pregnancy and the postpartum period are the result of a complex series of factors. The book therefore places these events in their wider cultural, social and religious contexts, which influenced the forms taken by rituals and therapeutic practices, religious and civil prescriptions and the regulation of the female body. The investigation of this complex experience represents a crucial contribution to cultural, social and gender history, as well as an indispensable tool for understanding today’s reality. It will be of great use to undergraduates studying the history of childbirth, the history of medicine, the history of the body, as well as women's and gender history more broadly.

324 pages, Paperback

Published July 13, 2020

Reviews

[Domenica Taverna · Rating 2 out of 5]

nice premise but far too sparse of a subject matter to get into enough detail to feel like you’ve actually learned something. the time frame spanning from antiquity to modern day, on such a broad topic, is too adventurous for the monograph’s own good which is a shame because it could be a very compelling and informative read - as opposed to finishing feeling as though you’ve just sifted through a couple hundred Wikipedia pages. argues nothing new, but rephrases major ideas and discoveries of the 20th century and jams them together in one place; the classical greek sections rely heavily on work from already widely received helen king, froma zeitlin, and nicole loraux.

[Ietrio · Rating 1 out of 5]

#1: the cultural history is about White people history. given they were all the time a minority, this is plain academic racism

#2: the area is quite large, and the variations can be quite spectacular even today: Ireland kept its fundamentalist stance restricting abortion, while the UK next door has few restrictions compared with the other countries in White people's lands, or how they call it: the West. Poland regressed a lot over night, yet Eastern Germany next door didn't.

#3: the time frame is huge. given the small size of the book, this is simply a work of propaganda: the academics will tell you all you need to believe on the subject

#4: things are getting harder as one goes back in time. today one can check all the depositions in parliament with a google search. before that there were the newspapers, which could report on everything the king doesn't mind, or how the White people call that: freedom of the press. by the 15th century there are only a few documents, and almost no data on the taboo issues like sex, period, after birth, and so on.

#5 the sources are mostly written by rich men who were hysterically afraid of blood and bodily fluids. so the information is bordering fairy tale.

#6: most subjects of the pregnancy / delivery / childbirth were illiterate and with an inclination not to talk about the subject.

in short: crap.