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Stories

  • Article

The birth of Britain's National Health Service

Starkly unequal access to healthcare gave rise to Nye Bevan’s creation of a truly national health service.

  • Article

Wonder Woman’s wonder women

Discover more about the women who inspired an icon: Wonder Woman’s story of bondage, bracelets and birth control.

  • Article

When parenting brings a paradigm shift

There were no indications during her pregnancy that Carol Nahra’s son would have severe, life-threatening disabilities. Here she describes the stages on her journey from shock to love and beyond.

  • Article

Thalidomide babies

In a time without scans or antenatal tests, neither medical staff nor parents were prepared for the damage to the foetus caused by the thalidomide drug.

All stories (38)

Images

  • Birth control clinic in caravan, with nurse.
  • Birth control clinic in caravan, est. by Marie Stopes.
  • Birth control has been around for 4,000 years : isn't it time you knew all about it? ... / Family Planning Association.
  • A woman with her hand on her head: Norplant birth control implant in Uganda. Colour lithograph by DISH, ca. 2001.
  • A baby crawling to the left representing a warning about good sexual health to prevent birth defects, STD's and AIDS; a warning to seek treatment for STD's by the National AIDS Control Project in New Delhi. Colour lithograph, 1995.
  • A baby crawling to the left representing a warning about good sexual health to prevent birth defects, STDs and AIDS (Hindi version); a warning to seek treatment for STD's by the National AIDS Control Project in New Delhi. Colour lithograph, 1995.
  • Solanum laciniatum Aiton Solanaceae. Kangaroo Apple. Evergreen shrub. Distribution: New Zealand and the east coast of Australia. It contains steroidal saponins that can be converted into steroids, including progesterone, oestrogens, cortisone, prednisolone etc. In 1943, Professor Russell Marker discovered a method of obtaining an unsaturated steroidal saponine, diosogenin, from Mexican yam (Dioscorea mexicana), which can easily and cheaply be converted into steroids, such as prednisone and progesterone, reducing the price of steroid production to a fraction (0.5%) of its former cost. For 20 years drug companies showed little interest, and it was only as a result of Professor Marker forming his own company, and the concerted efforts of several gynaecologists, physiologists and birth-control advocates, that the contraceptive pill was ‘born’ in 1960. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • MARIE CHARLOTTE CARMICHAEL STOPES
  • A couple attending a family planning clinic in Ethiopia. Colour lithograph by the Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia, 1998.
  • A health advisor gives contraception to a couple with their baby: family planning clinics in Kenya. Colour lithograph by Family Planning Association of Kenya, 1998.
All images (77)

Catalogue

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Events

  • Discussion

Marie Stopes’ Eugenics, Feminism and Birth Control

Online | In our building
Available to watch
  • Captioned
  • British Sign Language
  • Discussion

Access to Birth Control in Early 20th-century Ireland

Online
Available to watch

Part of Exploring Research

  • Auto-captioned
All events (2)