Mothers, Midwives, and Reproductive Labor in Interwar and Wartime Britain is about the experiences of mothers and midwives as they navigated the changing political and social issues surrounding childbirth and motherhood during interwar and wartime Britain. The needs and agency of women as mothers and midwives often conflicted with the ideals of the state. While government officials understood the importance of safe childbirth to the nation, they also chose to allow economic crises and war preparation to take precedence. The interwar plans for a national maternal healthcare system met financial constraints and a lack of political will. As the outbreak of the Second World War appeared imminent, politicians planned for pregnant women and those with small children to evacuate from cities. The reception areas were less well planned and pregnant women returned to their homes rather than deliver among strangers. Wartime maternity provision didn't take into account the needs and desires of mothers and midwives. Reproductive laborers--mothers and midwives--demonstrated agency throughout the period. Pregnant women chose to deliver at home with untrained or trained birth attendants; midwives entered and left the profession on their own terms, offering or withholding their skills when it suited individual need, rather than at the behest of government.
Sandra Trudgen Dawson is Executive Administrator of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians.
"A meticulously researched account of reproductive labor in Britain, this study clearly explains how and why midwifery changed from the late nineteenth century through the Second World War. Dawson offers a sweeping analysis of the cultural and political forces that undermined attempts to promote motherhood and midwifery and shares the voices of those who refused to follow official directives." --Allison Scardino Belzer, Georgia Southern University "Bringing a skilled midwife's knowledge to the history of motherhood and reproductive labor, Sandra Dawson shows how there was no good war for parturient mothers and their infants. Nonetheless, British women sought to determine where they gave birth and midwives carried out their duties despite lack of resources or prestige. Revisionist history at its best!" --Eileen Boris, University of California-Santa Barbara "In Mothers, Midwives, and Reproductive Labor in Interwar and Wartime Britain, Sandra Dawson prioritizes the voices of women. This makes her book a welcome addition to the literature on women and war and to histories of medicine, childbearing, and the origins and unfolding of the early welfare state in Britain." --Susan R. Grayzel, Utah State University
