ABSTRACT
In this chapter I focus upon the parallel yet synergistic development, in the west, of industrialisation, mechanisation, factories and biomedicine and how this influenced women’s reproductive experiences. I refer to key moments of historical significance through a ‘critical’ lens, with the notions of ideology and power being located centrally. In line with this critical approach I avoid presenting a detailed and linear chronology, but rather highlight key social, political and economic events of relevance to this book. I commence with the Enlightenment, as this era marked the way for a profound reconfiguration of the ways in which reproductive activities were conceptualised and experienced by women. I then focus upon the development and rise of the techno-medical model of medicine and its central arena, the hospital. I highlight powerful and hegemonic influences upon women’s reproductive experiences and the way in which the hospital, based on the factory, became the place and space within which women gave birth. I also discuss some of the ways in which women engaged with and indeed contributed towards a reconfiguring of birth by relating them to the complex socio-cultural context of women’s lives.
