Technologies of contraception and abortion

Soon to turn 60, the oral contraceptive pill still dominates histories of technology in the ‘sexual revolution’ and after. ‘The pill’ was revolutionary for many, though by no means all, women in the west, but there have always been alternatives, and looking globally yields a different picture. The condom, intrauterine device (IUD), surgical sterilization (male and female) and abortion were all transformed in the twentieth century, some more than once. Today, female sterilization (tubal ligation) and IUDs are the world's most commonly used technologies of contraception. The pill is in third place, followed closely by the condom. Long-acting hormonal injections are most frequently used in parts of Africa, male sterilization by vasectomy is unusually prevalent in Britain, and about one in five pregnancies worldwide ends in induced abortion. Though contraceptive use has generally increased in recent decades, the disparity between rich and poor countries is striking: the former tend to use condoms and pills, the latter sterilization and IUDs. Contraception, a term dating from the late nineteenth century and since then often conflated with abortion, has existed in many forms, and techniques have changed and proliferated over time. Diverse local cultures have embraced new technologies while maintaining older practices. Focusing on Britain and the United States, with excursions to India, China and France, this chapter shows how the patterns observed today were established and stabilized, often despite persistent criticism and reform efforts. By examining past innovation, and the distribution and use of a variety of tools and techniques, it reconsiders some widely held assumptions about what counts as revolutionary and for whom. Analytically, it takes up and reflects on one of the main issues raised by feminists and social historians: the agency of users as patients and consumers faced with choice and coercion. By examining practices of contraception alongside those of abortion, it revisits the knotty question of technology in the sexual revolution and the related themes of medical, legal, religious and political forms of control

Exchanges between medical and literary discourses in the French Renaissance: comparing the fascination with “des amas et pieces de chair informes” in Montaigne’s Essais and Joubert’s Erreurs populaires

Exchanges between medical and literary discourses in the French Renaissance: comparing the fascination with “des amas et pieces de chair informes” in Montaigne’s Essais and Joubert’s Erreurs populaires. Using Montaigne’s chapter “De l’oisiveté” as a point of departure, this article assesses the convergence of literary and medical discourses, and the significance of book-historical research. Since the “linguistic turn”, historians increasingly examine how medical texts crossed generic boundaries, sharing many strategies of literary discourse. Equally, recent attention, within book history, to “la politique éditoriale”, requires us to ask how early modern medical as well as literary books came into print and circulated. My comparison of Joubert’s Erreurs populaires (1578) and Montaigne’s Essais (1580), two surprising bestsellers, both published in Bordeaux by Simon Millanges, focuses specifically on the presentation of molar pregnancies by each author. I ask why this form of “monstrous birth” so fascinated the late Renaissance, and how far certain literary and medical styles of writing in the vernacular may have appealed to a common readership

Qui assistait à un accouchement en France entre 1530 et 1630 ?

La gravure qui figurait en tête du quatrième chapitre de la version allemande du Rosengarten d’Euchaire Rösslin‚ en 1513‚ fournit une image des accouchements pendant la Renaissance qui a acquis une valeur emblématique : nous y apercevons une sage-femme et une autre femme (celle-ci est-elle parente‚ amie‚ voisine ?) qui aident la parturiente‚ assise sur une chaise percée (fig. 1). Ce manuel‚ composé par un médecin allemand‚ circulait dans bien des pays de l’Europe ; il était‚ par ailleurs‚ tra..

Midwifery

Midwifery was a subject of both popular and scientific interest and often of regular scrutiny through the early modern period. While many births continued to be conducted by a local midwife, and family and religious rituals often remained constant, in other respects there were significant changes. However, their extent and the speed at which they affected different countries, even different regions, were extremely varied. The advent of print culture led to a sharp increase, from the 16th century onward, in the number of midwifery manuals available; those in the vernacular rather than Latin particularly found a wider, lay readership, especially when they contained descriptions and illustrations of “monstrous” births. Although most manuals were authored by male surgeons and physicians, in the 17th and 18th centuries some female midwives also kept detailed case notes and published textbooks. This contribution from women coincided in part with the rise of the male midwife, a phenomenon that challenged traditional midwifery, especially in England and France, and led to hotly contested debates over the use by male surgeons of the newly invented forceps, rather than relying on the skills of the expert female midwife. The period thus saw the emergence in some places of a medicalization of normal as well as complicated childbirth, and a potential diminution in the authority of the female midwife. Nonetheless, midwives, like surgeons and physicians, continued to be key members of the community, and midwifery was one of the limited number of remunerated, professional roles open to women. The regulation of midwifery varied by country and state/town, and was often a matter for both ecclesiastical and medical authorities: the former became critical after the Reformations because of the midwife’s potential role in baptizing the newborn. Although ecclesiastical licensing and medical regulations were undoubtedly sometimes more honored in the breach than in the observance, in some cities some formal training was provided for midwives. While the stereotypes of ignorant midwives and the associations of midwifery with witchcraft persisted in the popular imagination, by the 18th century Louis XV of France charged one midwife, Madame du Coudray (c. 1712–1794), with touring the provinces to teach midwifery skills in order to halt the decline in the population. In the cultural imagination, as well as in practice, the midwife remained a powerful if contested figure.</p