Reading Giving Birth in Eighteenth-Century England is a rich immersive, sensory, and visceral experience. Sarah Fox’s rigorously-researched exploration of the physicality, materiality, and communities involved in the processes and emotions surrounding late pregnancy, childbirth, and lying-in is a model of how to approach the history of embodiment and the work of birthing.
Month: April 2022
Giving Birth in Eighteenth-Century England: Amber Vella’s Review
In Giving Birth in Eighteenth-Century England, Sarah Fox shrewdly and eloquently argues that in the eighteenth century ‘birthing was a process – a series of linked and flexible stages – rather than an event’ (p.7). This statement directly challenges much of the historiography that has come before it: histories of birth and birthing have traditionally … Continue reading “Giving Birth in Eighteenth-Century England: Amber Vella’s Review”
Giving Birth in Eighteenth-Century England: Elizabeth Hurren’s Review
Giving Birth in Eighteenth-Century England is the first book in a generation to re-examine the birthing process of women in the long-eighteenth century. It fundamentally revises our historical appreciation of the complexities of how to give birth, all those involved, and the physical dimensions that women experienced from the final stages of pregnancy through to … Continue reading “Giving Birth in Eighteenth-Century England: Elizabeth Hurren’s Review”
Giving Birth as a Social Event: Interview with Sarah Fox
Sarah Fox has been part of the BECC community, as a postdoctoral research fellow on the Social Bodies project, since 2021. Her first book, Giving Birth in Eighteenth-Century England, came out this April with the University of London Press. We’ll be sharing a series of reviews over the rest of the week, to celebrate the … Continue reading “Giving Birth as a Social Event: Interview with Sarah Fox”
MECRN Workshop
This year, BECC will host the annual workshop of the Midlands Eighteenth Century Research Network, on campus at the University of Birmingham, on Friday 20th May between around 10am and 5pm (followed by drinks and dinner for those who choose it!). The event will be an opportunity to meet and catch up with fellow scholars of … Continue reading “MECRN Workshop”