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.

About the Author

Nadia Maria Filippini was Lecturer in Women's History in the Department of Humanities at Ca' Foscari University of Venice. She obtained her PhD in history at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Her research concerns the history of women and the history of mentalities. She has published books, essays and articles, in Italian and other languages, on topics such as the history of Caesarean sections ("extraordinary birth"), childbirth and the body, as well as the history of medicine, and women's social history. She is a founding member of the Societa Italiana delle Storiche (Italian Society of Women Historians).

Reviews

'Nadia Maria Filippini is a highly regarded social historian with a prolific scholarship centred on women's reproductive history. With this volume, beautifully translated by Clelia Boscolo, English readers can access Filippini's groundbreaking long duree approach to childbirth history, revealing patterns that evolved over 25 centuries.'

Costanza Gislon Dopfel, Social History of Medicine, UK

"This is a work of considerable scholarship. (...) Although I can hear the loud denials from here, I believe that in Britain we focus almost entirely on the practicalities of childbirth in the past, with limited interest in the contemporary thought and culture contributing to that care: this book takes a very different approach, and I thoroughly recommend it."

Alison Nuttall, De Partu: History of Midwifery and Childbirth Research Group

Book Information
ISBN 9780367211080
Author Nadia Filippini
Format Paperback
Page Count 324
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 630g