Poor and pregnant in Paris : strategies for survival in the nineteenth century / Rachel G. Fuchs.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fuchs, Rachel G., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Birth control--France.

Birth control.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 325 pages)

Other Title:

Poor and pregnant in Paris

Place of Publication:

New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, 2018.

Summary:

In their attempt to cope with the daunting problems of poverty and pregnancy, poor women in nineteenth-century France struggled with their environment and in some respects helped shape it. Rachel Fuchs reveals who these women were and how they survived. With dramatic detail, and drawing on actual hospital records and court testimonies, Fuchs portrays poor women's childbirth experiences, their use of charity and welfare, and their recourse to abortion and infanticide as desperate alternatives to motherhood. Fuchs also provides a comprehensive description of philanthropic and welfare institutions, and outlines the relationship between the developing welfare state and official conceptions of womanhood. She traces the evolution of a new morality among policymakers in which secular views, medical hygiene, and a new focus on the protection of children replaced religious morality as a driving force in policy formation. Combining social, intellectual, and medical history, this study of poor mothers illuminates both class and gender relations in Paris and brings to light the connection between social policy and the way ordinary women lived their lives. Fuchs's book enriches contemporary debates about maternity leave, abortion rights, and national health care initiatives. Book jacket.

Contents:

The poor and pregnant

Immorality and motherhood : 1830-1870

Depopulation and motherhood : 1870-1914

Morality and motherhood : women's voices

Charity and welfare for the pregnant poor

Charity and welfare for new mothers and infants

Mothers on welfare

Birth control and abortion

Infanticide and child abandonment.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.