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  • Article

Womb milk and the puzzle of the placenta

A human baby needs milk to survive – and this holds true even before it’s born. Joanna Wolfarth explores “womb milk”, as well as ancient and modern ideas about the placenta.

  • Article

Birth, babies and boxes of memories

With memories of her baby in neonatal intensive care still fresh, Erin Beeston decides to unearth the poignant objects her family kept following births, going back as far as Victorian times.

  • Article

Mixed feelings and milk siblings

A friend in need has a profound effect on Alev’s feelings about women sharing their milk in this final instalment of ‘The Breastmilk Market’.

  • Article

Confusion, guilt, and the battle to breastfeed

Most new mums are told that breast is best. But breastfeeding doesn’t always come as easily or naturally as you might imagine.

All stories (4)

Images

  • Mouse umbilical cord
  • Mouse umbilical cord
  • Tab V, fetus with umbilical cord and placenta
  • The placenta and umbilical cord. Watercolour by or after J. Lizars, 18--.
  • An eight month old foetus, shown attached to the placenta by the umbilical cord. Coloured engraving, 1818.
  • A foetus and placenta with umbilical cord. Engraving, 1686, the second, third, fifth and sixth figures after G. de Lairesse, 1685.
  • Dissection of the uterus in the latter stages of pregnancy, showing the foetus, placenta and umbilical cord. Coloured line engraving by W.H. Lizars, ca. 1827.
  • Sioux Indian amulet in the form of a turtle, worn by girls to ward off illness. Said to contain the umbilical cord of the wearer. Decorated in beading. Northern Plains
  • Sioux Indian amulet in the form of a turtle, worn by girls to ward off illness. Said to contain the umbilical cord of the wearer. Decorated in quills. Northern Plains
  • A baby, with thorax and abdomen dissected, attached by umbilical cord to the placenta, with the arteries, blood vessels and veins indicated in red. Coloured lithograph by J. Roux, 1822.
All images (28)

Catalogue

All works (97)