Perceptions of Pregnancy from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century

This multi-disciplinary collection brings together work by scholars from Britain, America and Canada on the popular, personal and institutional histories of pregnancy. It follows the process of reproduction from conception and contraception, to birth and parenthood. The contributors explore several key themes: narratives of pregnancy and birth, the patient-consumer, and literary representations of childbearing. This book explores how these issues have been constructed, represented and experienced in a range of geographical locations from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. Crossing the boundary between the pre-modern and modern worlds, the chapters reveal the continuities, similarities and differences in understanding a process that is often, in the popular mind-set, considered to be fundamental and unchanging.

Jennifer Evans is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. She researches the social and cultural history of early modern bodies, medicine and gender, and her work to date has focused on infertility and reproductive health. Her previous publications include Aphrodisiacs, Fertility and Medicine in Early Modern England, 1550-1780 (2014). She is the founding editor of http://earlymodernmedicine.com, and co-director of the Perceptions of Pregnancy Researcher's Network.

Ciara Meehan is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. Her research interests include the transformation of Irish society, abortion politics, and the everyday lives of women in twentieth century Ireland. Her publications include The Cosgrave Party: a History of Cumann na nGaedheal, 1923-33 (2010) and A Just Society for Ireland? 1964-87 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). She is co-director of the Perceptions of Pregnancy Researchers' Network.