This part of the project is constructing a reassessment of the earlier historiography on maternity care. It examines the records of maternal and child welfares associations across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to map how ante and postnatal care for mothers and infants has shifted and changed across throughout the twentieth century.

Key research questions include:

  • How did maternal and child welfare associations operate at a local level and how did this differ across the United Kingdom?
  • How were their histories shaped by significant developments including the popularisation of eugenics, the expansion of birth control, and the arrival of the NHS?
  • How do we locate and historicise the experiences of ‘ordinary’ mothers within the records left behind by these organisations?
  • How might we understand a ‘politics of care’ developing within the functions of these centres?
A black and white portrait photograph of a smiling nurse handing a newborn baby to its mother. They are stood outside the doorway to a building and are both dressed in 1960s-era clothing.
Courtesy of the Charles Hastings Education Trust, via the George Marshall Medical Museum