Motherhood Medicalized In The Twentieth Century

The twentieth century has witnessed a dramatic rise in population over the past one hundred years, growing from 1.65 billion in 1900 to surpassing seven billion in 2011. For such a fast-developing population, the medicalisation of society was a foreseeable consequence. This essay will examine the extent that motherhood has been medicalised in the twentieth century through focusing on themes of mortality, social expectations, and the advancements in medicine. To fully examine the extent that motherhood has been medicalised, medicalisation will be defined as ‘to give a medical character to; to involve medical workers in; to view or interpret in (eps. Unnecessarily) medical terms’ and will be applied from conception of the child.

The twentieth

Throughout the twentieth century there were conflicting views on ‘what made a good mother’. At the forefront of this debate was breast feeding. In 1908 a New Zealand doctor stated that ‘any women who could nurse her child, and would not, took the risk of being morally guilty of homicide by omission’ emphasising that society expected a mother to breast feed, and if they did not they risked being labelled an ‘unfit’ mother. The extent that women were expected to fulfil this duty can be shown through Dr. B D R Wilson who diagnosed and treated what he called the ‘attached nipple’. He treated this defect, of which occurred in around 40% of women , through digital manipulation and if that did not work then he suggested the use of a glass nipple shell to be worn during pregnancy to stretch the nipple out, alongside massaging the breast and manually expressing milk from the thirty second week of pregnancy. This illustrates the pressure on the mother to be a ‘good mother’ through breast feeding. However, it also encouraged the medicalisation of motherhood as pregnancy and the intimacy of breast feeding was no longer a personal experience between mother and baby, but instead one that depended on external advice and

It has been encouraged through societal expectation and attempts to lower mortality through medical advancements. Although it has been argued by scholars such as Rima Apple that motherhood has been neglected, the main argument within the essay establishes that medicalisation of motherhood has been an incessant feature of treatment and attitudes within the twentieth century, exemplified through breast feeding, re-education of the mother and increased use of medical treatments. It has been identified that medicalisation was an anticipated move for society, however, it was progressed by the medical industry. Therefore, the medicalisation of motherhood greatly impacted the twentieth