Birth and breeding : the politics of reproduction in modern Britain an exhibition at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, October 1993 / Ken Arnold, Lesley Hall, Julia Sheppard.

  • Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine.
Date:
1993
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Birth and breeding : the politics of reproduction in modern Britain an exhibition at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, October 1993 / Ken Arnold, Lesley Hall, Julia Sheppard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Opponents of the Act have concentrated on curtailing the time-limits but the reductions which have taken place largely reflect changing practice in the light of developments in neonatology and the technical problems of late abortions. It might appear that the last hundred years have seen a progression towards increased choice and control in reproductive matters for women in Britain. In some respects this is illusory: extremely low success rates in infer- tility treatment, for example, demonstrate that not everything is subject to choice or the application of medical skill. Control of the conduct of child- birth is still a contested area: midwives have been persistently reduced from independent practitioners expert in normal deliveries to subordinates of interventionist obstetricians. Increasingly high technologies in birth have generated demands for 'natural' alternatives. Anxieties have been aroused by the growing sophistication of prenatal diagnosis, with arguments that this may introduce eugenic judgements about 'fitness': concerns recently articulated (July 1993) over the so-called discovery of a 'gay gene'. The possibility of sex-choice of children arouses fears of creating sex-ratio imbalance through cultural preferences for males. The effects of maternal well-being on the fetus are so well-recognised that women (and men too) are recommended to undertake 'pre-conceptional' programmes of health improvement, and pregnant women condemned for continuing habits potentially deleterious to the coming child. Developments in neonatology affect debates on abortion as viability moves back to earlier stages of fetal development, yet the existing system— and the increasing constraints upon the health service—militates against safer, less traumatic early abortions. The 1974 inclusion of family planning within the NHS was apparently the final achievement of the aims of the movement since the 1920s, and most voluntary clinics were closed as local health authorities took on birth control services. However, few general practitioners registering to provide contraceptive services were adequately trained: and many individuals, especially in the younger and most vulnerable age groups, do not wish to consult their family doctor about contraceptive matters. Local health authority family planning services are now being restricted or cut out altogether as easy targets for 'economies'. Contraception becomes harder to obtain without determination and knowing the ropes, while old wives's tales and superstitions are still prevalent.