Giving Birth in Eighteenth-Century England
Sarah Fox (Author)
Series: New Historical Perspectives
Published in association with: Institute of Historical Research, Royal Historical Society
This fascinating new book radically rewrites all that we know about eighteenth-century childbirth by placing women’s voices at the centre 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 and community. It explores the rituals of childbirth, from birthing clothing to the foods traditionally eaten before and after birth, and also how a woman’s relationship with her family, husband, friends and neighbours changed during pregnancy and beyond. In this important and deeply moving study, we are invited on a detailed and emotive journey through motherhood in an age of immense intellectual and sociocultural change.
Shortlisted for the Royal Historical Society’s Whitfield Prize, 2023
Fox’s study is a timely and most welcome intervention. … Her conclusions cut across many fields (women’s history, midwifery and obstetrical history, and social and family history) and resonate powerfully at a moment when legal wrangling around the experience and support of pregnant and birthing people is so prevalent in the U.S. … This is an accessible—in multiple senses including most notably that it is open-access—and engaging book. Specialist and generalist readers alike will find it valuable, while its content and methodology lend themselves well to use in classrooms.
—Chelsea Phillips, Associate Director for Villanova Theatre, Villanova University, USA
ABO: Journal of Women in the Arts
Giving Birth draws together personal literature, folklore collections, and court records to masterfully articulate that childbirth opens a window onto the everyday family and community interactions, obligations, and bonds of later eighteenth century society. The book significantly nuances and updates the existing historiography on the topic of birthing rituals in the early modern era. Fox is to be commended on producing a book that is engaging and accessible, one that will appeal to students whilst becoming a cornerstone of research on the social history of reproduction.
—Jennifer Evans, School of Humanities, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK
Continuity and Change
Fox’s work is certain to become one of the central texts on the history of childbirth in England.
—Angela Muir, School of History, Politics and International Relations, University of Leicester, UK
Journal of Eighteenth Century Studies
With its expanded definition of childbirth to include ‘the people, places, and practices that surround birthing’, Giving Birth in Eighteenth-Century England is a welcome addition to eighteenth-century childbirth studies. Not only is it engaging and insightful, but shifting focus away from the medicalization of childbirth, it thoughtfully focuses on the lived experiences of mothers, infants, and the surrounding community during childbirth.
—Pam Lieske, Jent State University at Trumbull, USA
Social History of Medicine
Fox …steps back to provide a panoramic view of birth not as a single event, but as a process—a series of linked and flexible stages. The book thus captures a quite different reproductive world than that represented in studies focusing on the role of the midwife and man-midwife. … This is an engaging and valuable social historical study, offering insights beyond reproductive processes and practices to shed light on domesticity, the family, neighbourhood custom, eighteenth-century letter writing, and the history of the body more broadly.
—Lisa Forman Cody, Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, CA, USA
English Historical Review
Backed by impeccable research, including analysis of troves of archived letter. … Summing Up: ** Highly recommended.*
—S. W. Moss, independent scholar
Choice
Fox skilfully weaves together accounts from medical manuals, conduct books and treatises with the testimony of women and their families. … The book makes an important contribution to the history of eighteenth-century masculinity as well as to our understanding of women’s lives. … The range of sources are a real strength of the book, … making it of considerable interest to a range of scholars.
—Kate Gibson, Department of History, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Gender and History
What makes Fox’s work stand out from other scholarship on women’s experiences of birth is her focus on the ways the birth process created and defined community, … her careful analysis of the meaning and significance of common social practices surrounding birthing offers valuable insights. … Another highlight of Fox’s work is her engagement with the history of emotion in eighteenth-century England. … Fox’s book is engaging and readable and offers both a clear introduction to the practical and ritual elements of eighteenth-century childbirth as well as an intricate analysis of the social significance of birth practices.
—Nora Doyle, Western Carolina University, North Carolina, USA
History: Reviews of New Books
Introduction
Birth and the Body
Birth in the Household
Food and Birth
The Birth Family
Birth in the Community
Conclusion
PDF: 9781914477072
EPUB: 9781914477089
Read Online: 9781908590879
Hardback: 9781914477058 / 254 pages / 245mm x 163mm
Paperback: 9781914477065 / 254 pages / 156mm x 234mm
Sarah Fox (Author)
Sarah Fox is a social and cultural historian with interests in the social histories of law and medicine, the body, emotion, gender, food, and community. She completed her PhD at the University of Manchester in 2017 and is currently working at the University of Birmingham as a research associate on the Leverhulme-funded project Material Bodies, Social Identities: Embodiment in British Letters c.1680-1820.
Fox’s study is a timely and most welcome intervention. … Her conclusions cut across many fields (women’s history, midwifery and obstetrical history, and social and family history) and resonate powerfully at a moment when legal wrangling around the experience and support of pregnant and birthing people is so prevalent in the U.S. … This is an accessible—in multiple senses including most notably that it is open-access—and engaging book. Specialist and generalist readers alike will find it valuable, while its content and methodology lend themselves well to use in classrooms.
—Chelsea Phillips, Associate Director for Villanova Theatre, Villanova University, USA
ABO: Journal of Women in the Arts
Giving Birth draws together personal literature, folklore collections, and court records to masterfully articulate that childbirth opens a window onto the everyday family and community interactions, obligations, and bonds of later eighteenth century society. The book significantly nuances and updates the existing historiography on the topic of birthing rituals in the early modern era. Fox is to be commended on producing a book that is engaging and accessible, one that will appeal to students whilst becoming a cornerstone of research on the social history of reproduction.
—Jennifer Evans, School of Humanities, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK
Continuity and Change
Fox’s work is certain to become one of the central texts on the history of childbirth in England.
—Angela Muir, School of History, Politics and International Relations, University of Leicester, UK
Journal of Eighteenth Century Studies
With its expanded definition of childbirth to include ‘the people, places, and practices that surround birthing’, Giving Birth in Eighteenth-Century England is a welcome addition to eighteenth-century childbirth studies. Not only is it engaging and insightful, but shifting focus away from the medicalization of childbirth, it thoughtfully focuses on the lived experiences of mothers, infants, and the surrounding community during childbirth.
—Pam Lieske, Jent State University at Trumbull, USA
Social History of Medicine
Fox …steps back to provide a panoramic view of birth not as a single event, but as a process—a series of linked and flexible stages. The book thus captures a quite different reproductive world than that represented in studies focusing on the role of the midwife and man-midwife. … This is an engaging and valuable social historical study, offering insights beyond reproductive processes and practices to shed light on domesticity, the family, neighbourhood custom, eighteenth-century letter writing, and the history of the body more broadly.
—Lisa Forman Cody, Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, CA, USA
English Historical Review
Backed by impeccable research, including analysis of troves of archived letter. … Summing Up: ** Highly recommended.*
—S. W. Moss, independent scholar
Choice
Fox skilfully weaves together accounts from medical manuals, conduct books and treatises with the testimony of women and their families. … The book makes an important contribution to the history of eighteenth-century masculinity as well as to our understanding of women’s lives. … The range of sources are a real strength of the book, … making it of considerable interest to a range of scholars.
—Kate Gibson, Department of History, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Gender and History
What makes Fox’s work stand out from other scholarship on women’s experiences of birth is her focus on the ways the birth process created and defined community, … her careful analysis of the meaning and significance of common social practices surrounding birthing offers valuable insights. … Another highlight of Fox’s work is her engagement with the history of emotion in eighteenth-century England. … Fox’s book is engaging and readable and offers both a clear introduction to the practical and ritual elements of eighteenth-century childbirth as well as an intricate analysis of the social significance of birth practices.
—Nora Doyle, Western Carolina University, North Carolina, USA
History: Reviews of New Books
Subject: History, Social and Cultural History
BISAC codes: HIS015050, HIS037050, SOC046000
Thema codes: JBFV1, NH
Keywords: 18th-century England, England, birth, birthing linen, caudle, childbirth, children, clothes for pregnant women, community, family in 18th century, family life, family relationships, fatherhood, giving birth, history of motherhood, history of pregnancy, lying-in, menstruation in 18th century, mother-in-law, motherhood, mothers in 18th century, pregnancy, pregnancy in 18th century, rest after birth
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