History of Medicine, Science, and Technology » News (tag [Article])

‘Never in Asylum Before’: Childbirth, Insanity and Jewish Mothers in Colney Hatch Asylum c.1900

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 11:08:00 GMT

We’re delighted to share that Hilary has recently published an article in Social History of Medicine. This is an outcome of her Wellcome Investigator Award held at Warwick between 2021 and 2025, which explored postnatal mental disorders in twentieth-century Britain along with postdoctoral fellows, Kelly-Ann Couzens and Fabiola Creed. This has appeared as an advanced Open Access article and will be part of a special issue on Women, Reproduction and Mental Illness, scheduled to appear later this year.

This article explores the admission of Jewish women diagnosed with mental disorders related to pregnancy and childbearing into Colney Hatch Asylum around 1900. Admissions with puerperal insanity were prevalent amongst ‘Hebrew’ women, and in published work, including that of the institution’s medical officers, this was related to assumptions about marital and sexual practices, heredity and the ‘neurotic’ tendencies of Jewish people. However, analysis of the asylum’s casebooks reveals discrepancies between these explanations and those drawn on in practice. Similarly to other women admitted with disorders associated with childbearing, the mental breakdown of Jewish women was largely attributed to domestic stress and the strains of childbirth. The article also explores the testimonies of family members whose comments were incorporated into the asylum records, suggesting that these provide valuable insights into families’ understanding of the role of childbirth in prompting mental breakdown, reinforcing institutional diagnoses or at times diverging from them.

Please access here : https://doi.org/10.1093/shm/hkaf098

Protecting Health and the Catholic Family: Catholic Women’s League and Preventive Medicine Clinics for Mothers and Infants in Belgium (1945–1975)

Fri, 02 May 2025 09:33:00 GMT

We’re delighted to share that Juliette, 'a visiting fellow 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.

We’re delighted to share that Juliette, a former Visiting Fellow at the Centre for the History of Medicine, has recently published an article in Social History of Medicine. The article, which she began developing during her time at Warwick and presented to colleagues at CHM, marks a significant milestone in her research.

Since July 2023, she has been engaged as a postdoctoral researcher on the BRAIN WomenExile project (BELSPO), in collaboration with Université libre de Bruxelles, the University of Antwerp, and the Belgian State Archives. From November, she will continue her work in Paris as part of a two-year Marie Curie Fellowship. We’re proud to have supported her during her time at Warwick and wish her every success 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.

Let's End Period Poverty Ghana

Wed, 08 Jan 2025 14:05:00 GMT

Former Centre for the History of Medicine MA student, Meg Boatemaa Asare undertook a research project in Ghana in June 2024 funded by Wellcome with the aim of combating period poverty by: providing sustainable menstrual products; educating girls in school on menstrual hygiene and creating an open dialogue about menstruation; and seeking to advocate for policy changes at local government levels to ensure menstrual health support in schools and public spaces.

The project was carried out over two weeks in two different regions in Ghana: 3 community schools in Kumasi and 2 schools in Accra. Notable successes were the establishment of emergency pad banks in schools ensuring no girl misses school due to the unavailability of menstrual products; and the inclusion of men and boys in menstrual health education sessions helping foster a broader cultural change toward a more inclusive perspective on menstrual health.

A full write-up of the project is available here, and Meg has recorded a short documentary about her time in Ghana.

"Low Risk Doesn't Mean No Risk": The Making of Lesbian Safer-Sex and the Creation of New (S)experts in the Late Twentieth Century

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 11:19:31 GMT

We are happy to announce that 'The Cultural History of the NHS' project continues to bear fruit!

Dr Hannah Elizabeth, one of our postdoctoral Fellows, has just published their chapter, '“Low Risk Doesn’t Mean No Risk”: The Making of Lesbian Safer-Sex and the Creation of New (S)experts in the Late Twentieth Century' (open access here), an exciting piece of work informed by and begun during their time with us here at CHM!

Dr Elizabeth is now a Fellow on Dr Rebecca Wright's fantastic Wellcome Trust funded Project Carbon Bodies: Warmth and Fuelling Health in Britain, 1918 to 2022 at the University of Northumbria.

Workshop: Embodied Faith: Spirituality and Corporeality in Early Modern Christianity, 12-13 September 2024

Tue, 30 Jul 2024 09:57:00 GMT

Sophie Mann, CHM, and Martha McGill have arranged a two-day international workshop focusing on spirituality, corporeality and health in the early modern period.

When: Thursday, 12 Sept, 2pm to Friday, 13 Sept, 3pm (GMT)

Where: Teaching Grid, Warwick University Library

Programme

Nemone Lethbridge's play 'Baby Blues' on BBC television: maternal mental illness narratives, stigma and support in 1970s Britain

Mon, 18 Mar 2024 10:53:00 GMT

Dr Fabiola Creed, CHM Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the Wellcome Trust funded project The Last Taboo of Motherhood, which explores the history of maternal mental illness in twentieth-century Britian, has had an article published in Women's History Review.

Read the full article here

Abstract

In December 1973, the BBC aired Nemone Lethbridge’s auto-fictional play 'Baby Blues' as one of their influential ‘Play for Today’ (PfT) series (1970–1984). This article explores the impact of Lethbridge’s controversial television play, which drew attention to taboo topics, such as infertility, caesarean section childbirth, infanticide, suicide, and, separately, motherhood ageism and dismissive medical professionals. It will illustrate how Lethbridge’s play 'Baby Blues' was part of a broader change in discussing maternal mental illness and creating support for women experiencing postnatal depression and psychosis, instigated by the Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM). The article situates 'Baby Blues' within the wider history of the PfT series, with its focus on socio-political issues, and highlights the challenges Lethbridge faced in bringing the play to production. It analyses the mixed responses to the play, many of which were critical, and how this led to Lethbridge’s launching of a grass-roots self-help group, Depressives Anonymous (DA), in 1974, which was—and still is—a long-lasting legacy of 'Baby Blues'. The article builds on the history of maternal mental illness as explored in women’s narratives and its association with stigma, support and feminism, alongside the British Broadcasting Corporation’s television series PfT, in 1970s Britain.

'Last Taboo of Motherhood' audio plays are now available online

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 13:09:00 GMT

The 'Last Taboo of Motherhood’ audio plays are now available online

The artistic collaboration explores how women, their families, ‘experts’, and the wider community tell stories about motherhood and mental distress. The three audio-pieces produced from this exciting collaboration between historians and artists have been informed by a variety of historical sources, including first hand testimonies - oral histories and written narratives - from women who have experienced postnatal mental illness.

Written by Bryony Kimmings, Courtney Conrad and Sara Shaarawi, these pieces probe vital questions about women’s experiences of mental illness and the pervasive culture of silence that has existed around maternal mental health. It provokes reflections into how history might prompt new insights into our responses to postnatal mental illness today.

There are several ways to listen to the audios:

The audio plays discuss distressing subjects, including postnatal mental illness, infanticide and death and we recommend that they are suitable for ages 16+.

You can access them directly on our website
You can access them on Fuel Digital (You can listen free of charge, but need to register on the Fuel Digital website and purchase the audios for ‘0’ charge.)
You can listen on Spotify
For more details of the audio tour and audience feedback click here

‘Born in the Asylum: Insanity of Pregnancy and Unwed Mothers around 1900’

Mon, 05 Jun 2023 09:05:04 GMT

Read Professor Hilary Marland's new blog 'Born in the Asylum: Insanity of Pregnancy and Unwed Mothers around 1900'

This research is part of The Last Taboo of Motherhood? project, funded by a Wellcome Trust Investigator Award (2021-24), which draws on a rich variety of sources to explore the history of maternal mental illness in twentieth-century Britain.

'...the law is illogical and unjust’: The Problems with the Infanticide Act 1922

Thu, 04 May 2023 13:17:10 GMT

Dr Kelly-Ann Couzens latest blog from the 'Last Taboo of Motherhood' project explores the problems with the Infanticide Act 1922 and discussions with the medico-legal community about potential reform to the legislation.

Read the blog here.

'Women and Mental Illness in Post-War Britain' Workshop Summary

Thu, 04 May 2023 13:11:00 GMT

An in-person workshop was held on 13-14 April 2023 at the University of Warwick, co-organised by Fabiola Creed and Hilary Marland.

Generously funded by the Wellcome Trust, the Centre for the History of Medicine at Warwick and Warwick’s Global Research Priority Health, and prompted by our Wellcome funded project ‘The Last Taboo of Motherhood’, this workshop explored changes in understanding, diagnosing and responding to women’s mental illnesses in post-Second World War Britain.

Read a summary of the workshop here.