Sarah Fox
UoL Press
April 2022
156 × 234 mm
250 pp
Paperback: 978-1-914477-06-5
This fascinating new book radically rewrites all that we know about eighteenth-century childbirth by placing women’s voices at the center of the story. From quickening through to confinement, giving caudle, delivery, and lying-in, birth was once a complex ritual that involved entire communities. Drawing on an extensive and under-researched body of materials, such as letters, diaries, and recipe books, this book offers critical new perspectives on the history of the family, community, and the lives of women in the coming age of modern medicine. It explores rituals of contemporary childbirth—from foods traditionally eaten before and after birth, birthing clothing, and how a woman’s relationship with her family, husband, friends, and neighbours changed during and after pregnancy. In this important and deeply moving study, we are invited onto a detailed and emotive journey through motherhood in an age of immense socio-cultural and intellectual change.
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