Designing Motherhood: Things that Make and Break Our Births

by Michelle Millar Fisher, Amber Winick, Alexandra Lange (Foreword)

More than eighty designs--iconic, archaic, quotidian, and taboo--that have defined the arc of human reproduction.

While birth often brings great joy, making babies is a knotty enterprise. The designed objects that surround us when it comes to menstruation, birth control, conception, pregnancy, childbirth, and early motherhood vary as oddly, messily, and dramatically as the stereotypes suggest. This smart, image-rich, fashion-forward, and design-driven book explores more than eighty designs--iconic, conceptual, archaic, titillating, emotionally charged, or just plain strange--that have defined the relationships between people and babies during the past century.

Each object tells a story. In striking images and engaging text, Designing Motherhood unfolds the compelling design histories and real-world uses of the objects that shape our reproductive experiences. The authors investigate the baby carrier, from the Snugli to BabyBjörn, and the (re)discovery of the varied traditions of baby wearing; the tie-waist skirt, famously worn by a pregnant Lucille Ball on I Love Lucy, and essential for camouflaging and slowly normalizing a public pregnancy; the home pregnancy kit, and its threat to the authority of male gynecologists; and more. Memorable images--including historical ads, found photos, and drawings--illustrate the crucial role design and material culture plays throughout the arc of human reproduction.

The book features a prologue by Erica Chidi and a foreword by Alexandra Lange.

Contributors
Luz Argueta-Vogel, Zara Arshad, Nefertiti Austin, Juliana Rowen Barton, Lindsey Beal, Thomas Beatie, Caitlin Beach, Maricela Becerra, Joan E. Biren, Megan Brandow-Faller, Khiara M. Bridges, Heather DeWolf Bowser, Sophie Cavoulacos, Meegan Daigler, Anna Dhody, Christine Dodson, Henrike Dreier, Adam Dubrowski, Michelle Millar Fisher, Claire Dion Fletcher, Tekara Gainey, Lucy Gallun, Angela Garbes, Judy S. Gelles, Shoshana Batya Greenwald, Robert D. Hicks, Porsche Holland, Andrea Homer-Macdonald, Alexis Hope, Malika Kashyap, Karen Kleiman, Natalie Lira, Devorah L Marrus, Jessica Martucci, Sascha Mayer, Betsy Joslyn Mitchell, Ginger Mitchell, Mark Mitchell, Aidan O’Connor, Lauren Downing Peters, Nicole Pihema, Alice Rawsthorn, Helen Barchilon Redman, Airyka Rockefeller, Julie Rodelli, Raphaela Rosella, Loretta J. Ross, Ofelia Pérez Ruiz, Hannah Ryan, Karin Satrom, Tae Smith, Orkan Telhan, Stephanie Tillman, Sandra Oyarzo Torres, Malika Verma, Erin Weisbart, Deb Willis, Carmen Winant, Brendan Winick, Flaura Koplin Winston

Genres: Design, Parenting, Feminism, Nonfiction

344 pages, Hardcover

First published September 14, 2021

Reviews

[Jacquelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a tough one to decide on a rating for. On one hand, will this be one of my go to recommendations for others to read? No, definitely not. You have to have a particular interest in the history of the overlooked things around us and the way that society views/treats women to have a chance at enjoying this book. It's also an interesting design choice to go with the pink on pink color palette and textbook size. If you're more into reading full novels on a topic, you're also out of luck, this is really a series of essays. But all that being said, I ended up loving it. Once I got into this unusual book, I found each essay to be compelling and thoughtful and full of fascinating history into the products and social context of motherhood that I don't think you'll find anywhere else.

[EmelineB]

Our book club pick for February was Designing Motherhood: Things That Make and Break Our Births, edited by Amber Winick and Michelle Fisher (2021, MIT Press). The book functions like a catalog for the exhibitions organized by the editors and builds on a years-long project on Instagram, rooted in a collaboration with Maternity Care Coalition. Its rich visual iconography mixes personal and community archives, the technical, medical, social and private gaze. It stands out for its bright pink paper and for the stories mothers, their caregivers and designers need to hear.

Designing Motherhood brings to the foreground objects that are not obviously designed, would not usually be included in a design exhibition, but had to be conceived by someone. These objects shape our shared and individual experiences of birth. Belonging to the undervalued domain of care, they are invisibilized despite their impact.

The book is structured around four periods: before pregnancy, during pregnancy, at birth and in the early days. It’s at times a difficult read, because it speaks to a moment of vulnerability, of experiencing one’s own biological limitations. Pregnancy and childbirth are physically challenging and dangerous in the best of cases. Pregnancy is linked to the changes in auto-immune disorders; up to a third of women experience lasting health issues related to childbirth. In the TV series Battlestar Galactica, Dr Cottle comments synthetic humans should have upgraded the plumbing and many mothers would likely agree. Designing Motherhood strolls in that direction with a discussion of artificial wombs and how they may expand or lessen women’s rights if they became reality.

But the book highlights how we’ve missed the mark on what to design and how, only worsening the issue. It critically examines what objects say about the ideologies underpinning our conduct, from baby wearing to pushing strollers, in particular the impulse to believe we can optimise motherhood by buying the right things. It focuses on how these ideologies shape our relationships with ourselves, our children, our caregivers and our technologies. I found the case of technologies for listening to the fetus particularly fascinating (although the presentation of fetal monitoring during childbirth misses the nuances of current research). In places, the authors suggest how things could be different if we centered individual birthing people’s choices and well-being in design.

Choice is a central theme, not that it implies that choices happen in a vacuum or without constraints. The book discusses design-shaped choices in domains as varied as prenatal DNA testing, or visibilizing a pregnancy with clothing; choices as they are expanded by certain objects (the home pregnancy test); or the impossibility of choice (whether or not the labor will proceed without complications). And although the book focuses primarily on the United States, it does a great job at exposing how objects circulate around the world and may be adopted or not depending on local circumstances.

There’s a long way to go before each and every mother is supported in their transition to parenthood, including but not limited to their physical environment. There’s a long way to go until designers take into account the needs of mothers and parents. But this is a solid stepping stone to get there.

Originally published on Mothers in Art and Design

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Moderately useful and interesting. It is written from an era of "pregnant people" . The historic development of pregnancy related medications, devices and attitudes are good. However, it is more of a pro-choice approach featuring the importance of prevention of children.

[Melodie Roschman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn’t have the chance to read this as thoroughly as I would have liked to, but there’s a wealth of information and imagery here. I particularly like the photography and art by female artists about their pregnancies.

[Eleni Alpous · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite books of 2023

[Isabella Grandic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like a glorified magazine of women’s health history. Its pages are also stunning. Super glad to own a copy!