Pregnancy, Delivery, Childbirth : A Gender and Cultural History From Antiquity to the Test Tube in Europe

This book reconstructs the history of conception, pregnancy and childbirth in Europe from antiquity to the 20th century, focusing on its most significant turning points: 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. This book explores a history that, far from being linear, progressive or homogeneous, is characterised by significant continuities as well as transformations. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Table of Contents 8 List of Figures 12 Acknowledgements 15 List of Abbreviations 16 Introduction 18 Part I: Cultural Representations 24 1 Gender Dichotomies 26 1 Introduction 26 2 The Earth and the Sower 27 3 Man as the “Origin of Generation”: Generated by Man, Born by Woman 30 4 Sons and Daughters: Hierarchies in Generation 34 5 Generating with the Body, Generating with the Mind 36 6 Zeus’ Cephalic Delivery: Athena’s Birth 38 7 Childbirth vs War, Childbirth as War 39 8 Eve’s Pains 43 9 Mary’s Virgin Delivery 46 Part II: Giving Birth and Being Born From Antiquity to the 18th Century 58 Foreword 58 2 Pregnancy 62 1 Being Pregnant 62 2 The Foetus: its Development and Ensoulment 66 3 Making a Beautiful Baby: The Power of the Gaze and Cravings 71 4 Precepts, Practices and Prohibitions Between Medicine and Tradition 75 5 Not only Babies: “Monsters” and Moles 79 6 The Fight against Abortion and the Defence of the Venter 83 7 Institutions for Unmarried Mothers (“Fallen Women”) 86 3 Childbirth 93 1 A Painful Test, a Risky Journey 93 2 Preparing for the Event 96 3 The Childbirth Scene: Places, People and Practices 99 4 “Natural” Versus “Unnatural” Childbirth: The Doctors’ Discourse 107 5 “Sacrificing the Fruit to Save the Tree”: The Priority of a Mother’s Life 112 6 The “Second Delivery”: The Placenta 114 4 Birth and Post-Natal Period 120 1 The Birth Setting 120 2 Breastfeeding and Wet Nurses 126 3 Impurity: A Period of time Between Life and Death 129 4 Beliefs and Rules 132 5 Purification Rituals 135 6 Infanticide and Abandonment 137 5 Social Birth 145 1 Rites of Passage 145 2 In the Ancient World 146 3 In the Christian World 147 4 Baptism Between the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation 151 5 The Dual Death and the Construction of Limbo 153 6 Rituals Which Replaced Baptism 154 7 Post-mortem Caesarean Sections 156 6 The Midwife 160 1 Features and Skills 160 2 The “Midwife-Witch” 165 3 The Control of the Church 166 4 Control and Regulation of Political Institutions 168 5 A Variety of Figures 170 Part III: The 18th-Century Juncture 176 Foreword 176 7 The Institutionalisation of Midwives 178 1 Childbirth: Public and Political Interests 178 2 Midwives on Trial 180 3 “The Light of Knowledge”: The Creation of Midwifery Schools 183 4 A New Model of Midwife 185 5 Qualified Versus Unlicenced Midwives: An Age-Old Competition 187 8 Man-Midwives on the Childbirth Scene 191 1 The Establishment of Man-Midwives 191 2 Forceps and Vectis: The “iron Hands”, Symbols of the New midwifery 193 3 Active Versus Waiting Obstetrician: A Conflict of Perspectives and Practices 197 4 European Differences 200 5 Midwives and Man-Midwives: The Issue of Manual Interventions 202 9 Lying-in Hospitals 209 1 Unmarried and Poor Mothers in the Service of Training 209 2 New Midwifery Rituals and Practices 214 3 Childbed Fever and Semmelweis’s ‘Indecent’ Discovery 217 4 Puerperal Insanity and Infanticide: New Medical, Legal and Social Perspectives 219 10 The “Foetus-as-Citizen” 224 1 New Theories About Generation 224 2 The Birth of Embryology and the Personification of the Foetus 225 3 Theologian F. E. Cangiamila and the Campaign for Post-Mortem Caesarean Sections 228 4 The Protection of “Unborn Citizens” 230 5 Caesarean Sections on Living Women 232 6 Saving the Mother or the Child? 236 7 Defending (the Foetus’) Life: The Verdict of the Holy Office 238 8 Breastfeeding and New Forms of Childcare 239 9 Reforms and Laws in Defence of Newborns 243 Part IV: The Contemporary Age 248 11 The Many Revolutions of the 20th Century 250 1 Maternity Protection 250 2 Maternity and Nationalism: The Italian Case 252 3 Eugenics, Sterilisation and Forced Abortions 257 4 The Catholic Church and the Protestant Churches 259 5 The Delocalisation of Childbirth to Hospitals 260 6 “My Womb is Mine”: Contraception and Abortion in the Feminist Movement 265 7 “Of Woman Born”: a New Perspective on Childbirth 267 8 Pain-Free Childbirth: Chloroform, Epidural Anaesthesia and Psycho-Prophylaxis 269 9 “Let’s Take Childbirth Back!” 272 10 Revealing the Secrets of the Womb: Ultrasound scans 275 11 The New Frontier of Artificial Insemination 277 12 Conclusions: At the Dawn of the Third Millennium 281 Bibliography 290 Index 328 Gender,Dichotomies;,Pregnancy;,Social,Birth;,Contemporary,Age;,Maternity,Protection Gender Dichotomies,Pregnancy,Social Birth,Contemporary Age,Maternity Protection "This book reconstructs the history of conception, pregnancy and childbirth in Europe from antiquity to the Twentieth century, focusing on its most significant turning points: the emergence of a medical-scientific approach to delivery in Ancient Greece, the impact of Christianity, the appearance of the man-midwife in the Eighteenth century, the medicalisation of childbirth, 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 prescription 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 undergraduate students studying the history of childbirth, the history of medicine, the history of the body, as well as women's and gender history more broadly"-- Provided by publisher