Birthing bodies in early modern France : stories of gender and reproduction / Kirk D. Read.

Farnham ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate Pub., [2011], ©2011.

xiii, 205 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Spying at the lying-in: Les Caquets de l'accouchée as birthing event -- Staging the competent midwife: the royal birth stories of François Rabelais and Louise Boursier -- Touching and telling: gendered variations on a gynecological theme -- Assimilation with a vengeance: maternity without women in male French Renaissance lyric -- Unstable bodies: birthing monstrosities in early modern France -- Strange fellows in bed: exotic men's postpartum blues -- Postpartum.

Includes bibliographical references and index.