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Protecting Health and the Catholic Family: Catholic Women’s League and Preventive Medicine Clinics for Mothers and Infants in Belgium (1945–1975)
We’re delighted to share that Juliette, a former MA student to the Centre for the History of Medicine, has recently published an article in Social History of Medicine. The article, which she began writing during her time at Warwick and presented to colleagues at CHM, marks a significant achievement in her research journey.
Juliette will be continuing her work in Paris from November as part of a two-year Marie Curie Fellowship. We’re proud to have supported her during her time at Warwick and wish her all the best in this exciting next chapter!
Summary
This article examines a twofold specificity in circumstances that were brought about by the intervention of the Catholic Women’s League in the Belgian mother and infant welfare system between 1945 and 1975: the importance of religion and the central role of women volunteers in state-funded medical-social facilities. For the Women’s League, the infant clinics were a means of defending Catholic positions on the family and birth control on the ground, and of asserting its legitimacy to intervene in child protection policies. After 1945, the women who volunteered in the clinics took on apostolic missions, but also contributed to the medicalisation of children’s education. Protected by the Women’s League, they occupied rather unusual positions of authority. This article explores how the League succeeded in maintaining the presence of volunteers by creating new social services and missions when the medical and religious missions of clinics were changing in the early 1960s.