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Stories

  • Article

The conditional child

Deanna Fei asks what it means to sustain a life, drawing on her own experience of having a premature baby as well as an 18th-century essay.

  • Long read

Primodos, paternalism and the fight to be heard

Journalist Florence Wildblood examines the case of Primodos – a conveniently quick but risky hormone pregnancy test that was prescribed in the 1960s and ’70s – and profiles two women at the story’s shocking heart.

  • Book extract

Of incubators, orchids and artificial wombs

In this extract from Claire Horn’s new book, ‘Eve: The Disobedient Future of Birth’, she traces the development of the artificial womb, soon to become a reality.

  • 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.

All stories (9)

Images

  • The Virgin Mary, pregnant with James, and Joseph voyage back from Egypt with the child Jesus. Engraving by L. Vorsterman the elder, 1620, after P.P. Rubens.
  • Dissection of the torso of a pregnant woman, showing the internal organs and the foetus. Colour engraving by J. Pass after D. Dodd, 1794.
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Catalogue

All works (97)