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Born: The Untold History of Childbirth
Women have been fighting for control over their bodies for thousands of years. From Neolithic hunter-gatherers to the reversal of Roe v. Wade, this is their story.
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-listen for anyone who wishes to understand how we all came to be here.
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-listen for anyone who wishes to understand how we all came to be here.
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Published August 28, 2025
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October 25, 2025
Birth is necessary for the continuation of our species…but it can also be quite dangerous for mother and baby alike.
I loved the fact that this book began with hunter-gatherers in prehistory. It’s an era I always enjoy reading about, and the remains the author discussed were fascinating, especially given how little we know about the cultures that existed back then. This pattern continued with the Egyptians and other groups later on in history who created customs and rituals to protect pregnant women and the babies they carried. There are so many things I want to say about what I learned from this book, but I don’t want to risk sharing too many details for readers who prefer to discover such things themselves. Just know that there are plenty of interesting findings to support the author’s claims of how each era thought of this life stage.
Sometimes I did find that the author veered a little too far away from the topics of pregnancy and childbirth, although I’d also agree that many of those details about the cultures and religions of those periods were important in order to understand why certain customs existed, for example, or which sorts of babies might be abandoned after birth if the circumstances lined up unfortunately for them. With that being said, all of these asides did slow down the pacing enough in some chapters for me to find it less rewarding to read them.
The ending was thought provoking and did an excellent job of wrapping up the themes from earlier chapters. I was impressed that it went all the way through to modern day and included some things that are considered so routine now that the average person probably wouldn’t even think to mention them but would have been revolutionary or even unimaginable to pregnant women generations ago. The hopeful notes of it were also of interest to me as this isn’t always something that’s included in the history genre depending on what one is studying.
This was a solid read that I’d recommend to anyone interested in topics like pregnancy, childbirth, and women’s medical care.
I loved the fact that this book began with hunter-gatherers in prehistory. It’s an era I always enjoy reading about, and the remains the author discussed were fascinating, especially given how little we know about the cultures that existed back then. This pattern continued with the Egyptians and other groups later on in history who created customs and rituals to protect pregnant women and the babies they carried. There are so many things I want to say about what I learned from this book, but I don’t want to risk sharing too many details for readers who prefer to discover such things themselves. Just know that there are plenty of interesting findings to support the author’s claims of how each era thought of this life stage.
Sometimes I did find that the author veered a little too far away from the topics of pregnancy and childbirth, although I’d also agree that many of those details about the cultures and religions of those periods were important in order to understand why certain customs existed, for example, or which sorts of babies might be abandoned after birth if the circumstances lined up unfortunately for them. With that being said, all of these asides did slow down the pacing enough in some chapters for me to find it less rewarding to read them.
The ending was thought provoking and did an excellent job of wrapping up the themes from earlier chapters. I was impressed that it went all the way through to modern day and included some things that are considered so routine now that the average person probably wouldn’t even think to mention them but would have been revolutionary or even unimaginable to pregnant women generations ago. The hopeful notes of it were also of interest to me as this isn’t always something that’s included in the history genre depending on what one is studying.
This was a solid read that I’d recommend to anyone interested in topics like pregnancy, childbirth, and women’s medical care.
Displaying 1 of 1 review