ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the major discursive strands around which the idea of antenatal care took shape in Bengal. It identifies three factors responsible for the uneven nature of antenatal provision in Bengal. First, the cultural inhibitions of the average Bengali women debarred them from seeking antenatal consultation on a regular and sustained basis. Second, lack of financial resources or absence of aid from government impeded the expansion of the hospitals to include antenatal clinics. Third, the systematic implementation of antenatal care in Bengal was not hampered so much by the class divide as it was by a much stronger urban-rural divide. The evolution of antenatal care in Bengal was imbricated in similar developments in England, although it diverged and developed its own trajectory that was largely determined by the socio-economic realities of a colonial state. In England, at the turn of the century, antenatal care was considered a vital part of preventive obstetrics.
