Nadia Filippini - 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 todays 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 womens and gender history more broadly.

Nadia Maria Filippini was Lecturer in Womens History in the Department of Humanities at Ca Foscari University of Venice. She obtained her PhD in history at the cole des Hautes tudes 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 womens social history. She is a founding member of the Societ Italiana delle Storiche (Italian Society of Women Historians).

A Gender and Cultural History from Antiquity to the Test Tube in Europe

Nadia Maria Filippini
Translated by Clelia Boscolo

First published 2021

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2021 Nadia Maria Filippini

Translated by Clelia Boscolo

The right of Nadia Maria Filippini to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

First published as Nadia Maria Filippini, Generare, partorire, nascere. Una storia dallantichit alla provetta, Roma, Viella, 2017 - Viella s.r.l.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Names: Filippini, Nadia Maria, author. | Boscolo, Clelia, translator.

Title: Pregnancy, delivery, childbirth: a gender and cultural history from antiquity to the test tube in Europe / Nadia Maria Filippini; translated by Clelia Boscolo.

Other titles: Generare, partorire, nascere. English

Description: Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020010004 (print) | LCCN 2020010005 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367211073 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367211080 (paperback) | ISBN 9780429265457 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: ChildbirthHistory. | ObstetricsHistory. | MotherhoodHistory.

Classification: LCC RG511 .F4513 2020 (print) | LCC RG511 (ebook) | DDC 618.2dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020010004

ISBN: 978-0-367-21107-3 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-367-21108-0 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-0-429-26545-7 (ebk)

Typeset in Bembo

by codeMantra

To my son Pietro

PART I
Cultural representations

PART II
Giving birth and being born from antiquity to the 18th century

PART III
The 18th-century juncture

PART IV
The contemporary age

The book is the revised and expanded version of the book Generare, partorire, nascere. Una storia dallantichit alla provetta (2017), published by Viella in the series Storia delle donne e di genere (History of Women and Gender) of the Societ Italiana delle Storiche (Italian Society of Women Historians).

I wish to extend my special thanks to those who have supported the translation of this book with their encouragement and help: Anna Bellavitis, my friend in life and in research; Sandra Cavallo, Raffaella Sarti, Perry Wilson and Francesca Medioli for their help and valuable advice; Gianni Moriani and Silvia Carraro for their help with the editing; Alessandro Ambroggi for helping with image resolution; and Clelia Boscolo for her translation work.

I am grateful to the anonymous English referees who, with their constructive critical remarks, have directed me to review or expand some parts of the original Italian text.

Special thanks to the institutions and libraries that welcomed me and provided invaluable help in the final stages, especially the British Library and the Wellcome Library. The Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice, the Patriarchal Curia of Venice, the Querini Stampalia Foundation of Venice, the Biblioteca Pinali antica of Padua (special thanks to Giulia Rigoni) and the Gambalunga Library in Rimini kindly allowed me to reproduce valuable images from their collections.

ACBgArchive of the Municipality of Bergamo (Italy).AIPMIArchive of the Provincial Institutes for Childcare Assistance of Milan (Italy).APlattAristotle, On the Generation of Animals, transl. by Arthur Platt.ASVeVenice State Archives (Italy).Did.Didach. The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles.Epith.Thucydides, Peloponnesian War (Pericles Epithaph).Eum.Aeschylus, Eumenides, transl. by Herbert Weir Smyth.Exc.[Hippocrates], Excision du Foetus, texte tabli et traduit par Florence Bourdon.FS[Hippocrates], Femmes Steriles, texte tabli et traduit par Florence Bordon.GAAristotle, De la Gnration des animaux, texte tabli et traduit par Pierre Louis.Gen.[Hippocrates], De la Gnration, texte tabli et traduit par Robert Joly.Genesis KJVGenesis, Old Testament, King James Version.Gyn.Soranos dphse, Maladies des femmes, texte tabli et traduit par Paul Burguire, Danielle Gourevitch, Yves Malinas.HPott.[Hippocrates], On Generation. Nature of the Child. Diseases 4. Nature of Women and Barrenness, ed. and transl. by Paul Potter.Lev. KJVLeviticus, Old Testament, King James Version.Luke KJVLuke Gospel, King James Version.LGLumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution).Med.Euripides,