CfA: Special Issue Proposal for “The History of the Family”

HISTORIES OF MATERNITY IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE: IDEAS, PRACTICES, AND EXPERIENCES  

Guest Editors: Dr. Andrea Griffante (Vilnius), PD Dr. Friederike Kind-Kovács (Dresden), Dr. Oana Sorescu-Iudean (Cluj)  

Working Group 3 “Healthcare Patients” of the COST-Action CA 22159 “National, International and Transnational Histories of Healthcare, 1850-2000 (EuroHealthHist)” is proposing a special issue to the journal “The History of the Family” and is seeking proposals for article contributions until May 25th, 2025.  

Over the last two centuries, women’s bodies have been a central object of biopolitics, and maternity has been a key site of state intervention. In modernizing societies, control over women’s bodies, and over their reproductive functions and rights, represented a symbolic and practical means for the implementation of social and political projects. While using health care for nation-building purposes, states developed maternity programs throughout the 20th century to pursue specific demographic, eugenic, and health-related projects. Medical practitioners aimed to provide mothers assistance prior, during, and after childbirth as a matter of ‘modernity’ and hygiene. They shared the priorities of state elites who often viewed these practices as useful means for improving the next generation’s health, strengthening mother child relationships, and fostering social cohesion.  

Private actors (midwives, organizations offering prenatal and postnatal care, etc.) on the other hand engaged in mothers’ health care both to deliver support for specific groups of mothers or to implement alternative health care or birth-giving practices. International actors expressed increasing interest in establishing and maintaining minimum standards for mothers’ health care. Mothers’ reproductive rights were formulated as part of a discourse of rights and humanitarian aid. Mothers’ rights were to be granted irrespective of national, ethnic, or religious belonging; yet, in practice, often the opposite was true. Various forms of social marginalization and exclusion persisted, shaping maternal experiences in everyday life. While pregnant, birthing and nursing mothers as medicalized – and often hospitalized – patients faced manifold challenges, mothers were however never just passive recipients of maternal care; instead, they engaged with, advocated for, or resisted maternal health care practices that were to be delivered to them, influencing in that way their very provision and effectiveness. Hence, women’s resilience and agency during pregnancy, childbirth, and post-partum always fundamentally shaped and altered maternity in manifold ways.  

Against this backdrop, the planned special issue aims to explore the history of maternity as a site of social, cultural, political as well as medical intervention. The contributions seek to survey notions, practices, and experiences of maternity in the 20th century in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), tracing norms and practices of ‘good’ maternal care. The special issue thus aims to engage with the various ways in which states and societies in CEE interpreted and applied ‘modern’ maternity practices. It furthermore seeks to explore the norms and values that were conveyed through mothers’ health care and childbirth practices. The various case studies from Central and Eastern Europe will engage with medical advancements, state policies and cultural traditions that shaped and affected maternal health practices, considering the intersections between gender, public health and politics. Ongoing challenges to maternal health furthermore require us to focus in particular on mothers’ individual and collective experiences with the notions and practices of good and appropriate ‘maternity’ throughout the 20th century. On this basis, this special issue seeks to deepen our understanding of maternity as a social norm, a societal concern and a personal experience.  

We kindly ask scholars interested in proposing a chapter to the special issue to submit a short abstract of their papers (150 words) and a short descriptive cv no later than May 25 to griphusrex@yahoo.it . Full draft papers (approx. 8,000 words) will be expected to be submitted to the editors by 15 October 2025. All articles for the special issue will pass through a double blind peer-review process. Publication is scheduled for 2027.