Born: The Untold History of Childbirth

by Lucy Inglis

There is a history of humanity that has never been told – overlooked and unrecorded for the story of how we are born.

Acclaimed cultural historian Lucy Inglis takes the reader on an epic journey through the stories of women over hundreds of thousands of years. From ancient Mesopotamian birthing practices to the lost contraceptives of Ancient Rome and the strange story of the feminists who fought for the right to forget childbirth, this is a truly sweeping history that explores the competing ideologies and lived realities that have shaped so many lives.

Lucy Inglis charts the battle for control throughout history over reproduction, birth and women's bodies - a fight still raging in many places across the world. With birth rates falling and infant mortality in many societies on the rise once more, this bold and timely book raises vital questions about how we think about motherhood and pregnancy today. Lucy Inglis has spent over a decade researching the history of childbirth, drawing on new and unseen sources from a wide-ranging array of disciplines.

Charting the powerful interests and dedicated scientists that have shaped women's maternal experiences, this is a must-read for anyone who wishes to understand how we all came to be here.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Feminism, Womens

336 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 5, 2025

Reviews

[Sarah Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review: Born: A History of Childbirth by Lucy Inglis

As a feminist and a public health practitioner, I approached Born: A History of Childbirth with a mix of professional curiosity and personal reverence for the subject matter. Lucy Inglis’s sweeping historical account of childbirth is both a celebration and a sobering reminder of how deeply gender, power, and medicine intersect in the most intimate of human experiences. While the book is not explicitly framed as a feminist or public health text, its unflinching examination of childbirth’s evolution resonated with my work on maternal health disparities and bodily autonomy.

Emotional Reactions: A Journey Through Joy and Injustice
Reading Born was an emotional rollercoaster. There were moments of awe—learning about ancient birthing practices that centered women’s autonomy (like standing or squatting positions depicted in historical carvings)—and moments of rage, as Inglis meticulously documents how medicalization often stripped women of agency, relegating childbirth to a clinical, male-dominated spectacle. The chapters on forced sterilizations and coercive interventions hit particularly hard, echoing contemporary public health battles over reproductive justice. I found myself alternating between admiration for the resilience of birthing people throughout history and fury at the systemic injustices they’ve endured.

Constructive Criticism: A Feminist Lens on the Gaps
While Inglis’s research is undeniably thorough, I occasionally wished for a more explicit feminist critique of the power structures shaping childbirth. For instance, the book could have delved deeper into how race and class intersect with these histories—such as the forced sterilizations of marginalized women or the criminalization of pregnancy in certain populations. These issues are hinted at but not fully explored, leaving room for a more intersectional analysis. That said, I recognize that Born is a historical survey, not a manifesto; my critique stems from the public health practitioner in me who sees these connections daily.

Gratitude & Final Thoughts
Thank you to the publisher for the free copy. Born is a vital contribution to the canon of maternal health literature, offering both a tribute to the past and a mirror to our present struggles. For public health workers, it’s a reminder that the fight for equitable, respectful childbirth is centuries old—and far from over. Inglis’s work left me equal parts inspired and galvanized, a testament to its power.

Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.5/5) — A richly researched, emotionally charged history that will resonate with anyone invested in gender equity and health justice.

Note: My perspective is inevitably shaped by public health’s focus on structural inequities, but this book’s historical grounding offers invaluable context for today’s maternal health advocacy.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Born: The Untold History of Childbirth by Lucy Inglis is a fascinating book that explores an area of human experience that has long been overlooked by history.

Inglis takes the reader on a broadly chronological journey from early pre-history all the way through to the time of writing as Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 47th president of the USA. In this time, she covers a diverse range of topics associated with childbirth, including medical developments related directly to childbirth, social and cultural attitudes towards pregnancy and childbirth, the impact of scientific racism and eugenics on attitudes towards pregnancy and birth, and attitudes and laws around contraceptives and abortion.

For the most part, the book covers all these areas with clear and compassionate prose that allows the modern reader to emphasis with the women across time and place.

The only downsides are that this is a relatively slim book (approximately 400 pages) covering a very large period of time, and as such, at times, the coverage of topics can feel somewhat uneven. The section on miscarriage is poignant and clearly very personal, but feels comparably for the weight it deserves. The length of the books also means the book is primarily focused on Britain and the USA especially once we reach the early modern period, it would be stronger to set geographical limits on the text and not include short sections that feel somewhat bolted on.

Overall, a strong book that I would recommend.

[Destiny · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was Christmas gift that I very much enjoyed reading. It reminded me of my studies in the History of Medicine and the History of Sex which I undertook at university. At times, however, I felt that i was reading Wikipedia articles and I think this comes down to there needing to be a more central thread woven throughout the chapters.

I was also quite surprised that the following things were left out (especially given that there was quite a bit of fluff that could have been trimmed where the author was giving her own opinions about historical figures):

- discussions of hyperemesis gravidarum and the death from dehydration many women faced prior to modern anti-emetic medicines, including the famous Florence Nightingale. I totally could imagine the author including this and writing something witty about how even Nightingale’s medical advancements couldn’t save her from lack of knowledge on this deadly and still even now misunderstood condition in pregnancy.
- discusssions of the thalidomide tragedies and how fear of a similar phenomenon resulted in women losing access to anti-emetic medicines for some time
- discussions of post-partum depression and anxiety which are available in the historical record and its perceived connection to demonic entities which in part explains its modern taboo nature

Overall, this was a very good book, and I think many people would enjoy it, probably more so if they hadn’t studied it at university.

[Stefanie Christiane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Born is an interesting book. While the subtitle says “the untold history of childbirth” this is sadly only partly the case.

The earlier chapters deal with the topic of childbirth, how women did it in prehistory, Roman times etc but the last couple of chapters, rather focus on female reproductive rights. Which, don’t get me wrong, is incredibly important and interesting to read, sadly just not what I expected from the book with that title.

Also, while probably not important in the grand scheme of things, when talking about the Roman republic, it’s just not correct to speak of “Roman Empire” (it’s just two different things)

The book also showed, on more than one occasion, that people are not “black or white” but operate in their time period influenced by their time’s biased. Eg Sanders, who had racist thoughts but was promoting birth control for women. Just one of a few examples mentioned in the book, that hopefully keep people thinking.

Overall a good read with a lot of information that will for sure be useful for women who are pregnant and want to be a bit more informed. Just don’t be too squeamish.

[Jen Burrows · Rating 4 out of 5]

Born unravels centuries of beliefs and medical practice surrounding fertility, conception, contraception and birth, charting the cultural shifts and trends that have shaped women's experience throughout history. It's a hugely ambitious feat, but I found Inglis' writing informed and highly readable, conveying a vast amount of research in an engaging and accessible way.

At times I found the turns the investigation takes surprising - there is much more of a focus on eugenics than pregnancy, for instance. In places it felt like such an impressive breadth of the material might have benefited from a slightly more balanced structure.

An interesting and wide-ranging exploration of women's experience of childbirth through the ages, Born makes for a fascinating read.

*Thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review*

[Haxxunne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought-provoking, millennia-long journey
—
In a thorough and urgent narrative, Inglis takes us on a millennia-long journey, right from the myths and religious roles of childbirth and more broadly women‘s bodies and their health, via history and women’s hidden voices, from the nascent sciences of childbirth to the present day and the worrying erosion of women’s autonomy over their bodies in the States. Never not telling the reader something new, Inglis’s book does so much with both economy and awareness of how to hook the reader, especially the glaring absence of women at times when the very subject is women’s health. Thought-provoking for the armchair historian yet written for the general reader, Inglis opens doors to a history and a world that has ramifications for anyone and everyone.

[Charlotte reads history · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved Lucy Inglis’s last book Georgian London so leapt at the chance to read her newest non fiction Born - an expansive history of childbirth from 29,000 years ago to the present day.

Inglis makes use of fascinating material sources for pre and ancient history which I found genuinely thrilling to read about. I studied Tudor childbirth and infant care as part of my masters but that was a drop in the ocean compared to Inglis’s hugely informative and comprehensive history. I was also surprised about the extent childbirth was controlled by the state in more recent times - as a staunch feminist I know about the most recent history, but I was shocked at the horrendous slide into eugenics through the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, culminating in some of the awful, evil practices and ideologies that defined the Second World War.

Enthusiasts of social history will find lots here to interest them - well worth adding to your collection.

Thank you to @bloomsburypublishing for the #gifted proof copy, Born is out now!