Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Note on the Text
- List of Illustrations
- Dedication
- Introduction: Constructing Maternal Knowledge
- 1 Flesh and Stone: Dissecting Maternity in the Theatre of Anatomy
- 2 The Cabinet of Wonders: Monstrous Conceptions in the Theatre of Nature
- 3 Strange Labours: Maternity and Maleficium in the Theatre of Justice
- 4 Speaking Stones: Memory and Maternity in the Theatre of Death
- Postscript: Our Maternities: The Historical Legacy
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
Postscript: Our Maternities: The Historical Legacy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Note on the Text
- List of Illustrations
- Dedication
- Introduction: Constructing Maternal Knowledge
- 1 Flesh and Stone: Dissecting Maternity in the Theatre of Anatomy
- 2 The Cabinet of Wonders: Monstrous Conceptions in the Theatre of Nature
- 3 Strange Labours: Maternity and Maleficium in the Theatre of Justice
- 4 Speaking Stones: Memory and Maternity in the Theatre of Death
- Postscript: Our Maternities: The Historical Legacy
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
Summary
There is no doubt that modern medicine has made astounding advances in the area of birth: infertile women become mothers, sick women deliver healthy babies, and infirm newborns grow into happy kids. But it must also be said that, for many women, over the years, this supposedly beneficial medical help has often meant isolating babies in nurseries, receiving an unnecessary episiotomy, having a breast dipped in iodine before every feeding – whatever the latest trend. If only we'd known how sceptical we should have been.
The authoritative knowledge claimed by the technological and biomedical institutions which have grown up around the maternal body is founded on the prevention of the potential crises faced by conceiving women. As Tina Cassidy reveals in her engaging study, Birth: A History, expectant mothers are confronted with a bewildering array of professional medical opinions, childcare guidance and health advice. What should women believe? Or, to put it another way, to whose authoritative knowledge should they give credence? And when, if at all, should they introduce knowledge derived from their own personal experience into the birthing process?
The maternal body we have come to know – the conceptual locus for our investment as a society in the care pregnant women should receive, the nature of the pharmacological and surgical intervention applied during labour, and the level of autonomous personhood accorded the developing foetus – has a rich and complex history we are only just beginning to piece together.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Shakespearean MaternitiesCrises of Conception in Early Modern England, pp. 268 - 269Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2008