ABSTRACT
For centuries, the physical state and the social situation of pregnancy have been used to explain physical and mental traits considered undesirable in children. This chapter examines all issues of American Baby from 1983-93. American Baby is a mass-circulation magazine geared toward middle-class women that reaches about 1,300,000 readers with each monthly issue. During pregnancy, women are often told to avoid "thinking too much", "being anxious", "worrying", or "introspecting" for a variety of reasons. The greatest compliment a woman can receive while pregnant is that she looks just like her prepreg-nant self, albeit with a small embryonic bolus traveling somewhere in front. Every rhetoric names responsible parties, and the responsible party overwhelmingly named in the rhetoric of fetal endangerment is the pregnant woman. The "successful" outcome of a pregnancy is not merely a live birth, it is a "perfect" child. Therefore, children with shortcomings, large or small, can be read as evidence of parental moral failure during pregnancy.
