In the spring of 2018, government delegates from around the world gathered in Geneva, Switzerland for the World Health Assembly […]
Hospital Confinement: From the 19th Century to the 21st
Last summer I had a very different experience of childbirth than most women. I was not entirely sure what to […]
Fantasy and Folklore in Childbirth Narratives
Before the age of Facebook and parenting blogs, how did women exchange knowledge and beliefs about reproduction? Without What to […]
Let’s Question All Versions of the Myth of Perfect Motherhood
I would call it a “pet peeve,” but the stakes are higher: I can’t stand policy arguments based on inaccurate […]
On Poverty, Morality, and Mothering
In 1930, nineteen-year-old black (preta) Jovelina Pereira dos Santos, a live-in domestic servant in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, hid her […]
Mothers’ Natures: Sex, Love, and Degeneration in the Nineteenth-Century United States
Every so often, some viral article or other will declare that science “proves” or “confirms” that intelligence is inherited from […]
Me, Me, Me: Millennials, Midwives, and the Ongoing History of Female Self-Care
Several articles from reputable sources such as NPR and The Guardian have recently focused on the millennial generation’s supposed obsession […]
Dorothy Bruce Weske: Academia and Motherhood in the Mid-Twentieth Century
In 1934, in her mid-thirties and single, Dorothy Bruce defended her dissertation at Radcliffe College on thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Convocations, […]
Playwright Alice Eve Cohen Asks Us to Reconsider What We Think We Know about Pregnancy and Motherhood
“What makes a mother real?” asks writer and performer Alice Eve Cohen in her newly-published play, What I Thought I […]
What to Expect When You’re an Expecting Superhero: Spider-Woman Shifts Gears
Like the best action, the new comic Spider-Woman: Shifting Gears, Vol 1: Baby Talk starts in media res. Jessica Drew […]