Person giving birth. The history of childbirth culture in Russia in the Modern Times

At first glance, the act of birth seems to be one of the most basic and immutable phenomena of our life, but in fact its social and cultural existence is in the process of constant transformation. From the XVIII - until the beginning of the 20th century, obstetrics and maternity culture in Russia have come a long way. How exactly did female reproductive behavior and social conditions surrounded? What historical factors influenced the development of obstetrics? How did the birth go from home space to the clinical and when did the family planning practices be born? The authors of the monograph are trying to answer these questions using a wide range of sources. Turning to the stories of diseases, textbooks and atlases on obstetrics, reports of medical institutions, protocols of the meeting of charitable societies, divorce business, diary records and letters, they reconstruct the development of maternity culture in Russia from Peter I to the October Revolution. Among these sources, the central place is occupied by written evidence in which women themselves describe and comprehend maternity experience. Natalya Mitsyuk, Natalya Pushkareva and Anna Belova - historians and anthropologists, members of the Russian Association of Women"s History (Raizhi)