Podcast Summary: New Books Network – Leah Astbury, "Making Babies in Early Modern England" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
Host: Elspeth Curry
Guest: Dr. Leah Astbury
Date: February 26, 2026
Duration (excluding ads): [01:35]–[54:51]
Overview
This episode features Dr. Leah Astbury discussing her first book, Making Babies in Early Modern England, an exploration of the processes, experiences, and cultural frameworks surrounding conception, childbirth, and infant care in 16th and 17th-century England. The conversation delves into how early modern English society understood and managed fertility, pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum care within the context of the household, contesting longstanding historiographical assumptions about gender, medicine, and family. Astbury also discusses the relevance of historical perspectives to contemporary debates on childbirth and parenting.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. Dr. Astbury’s Academic Journey & Interest in the History of Generation
[02:11]
- Leah Astbury introduces herself as a lecturer in health history at the University of Bristol.
- Her interest emerged from undergraduate studies in early modern history, especially the body and its treatments in different eras.
- She became involved with the Wellcome Trust’s Generation to Reproduction project during her PhD, which developed into this book.
2. Generation vs. Reproduction: Terminology and Historical Framing
[05:06]
- Astbury prefers "generation" to "reproduction," as the former reflects early modern conceptualizations, which were more fluid and capacious.
- "Generation" encompasses conception, pregnancy, birth, and postnatal care as part of an ongoing life cycle, rather than strict modern clinical categories.
“Early modern people use lots of these kind of capacious terms to talk about, I guess, procreation. [...] Generation is one of them, but you also see in the titles of the books Breeding or Teaming Women.” (Astbury, 05:43)
3. The Household Framework: Childbirth as a Family and Social Affair
[08:25]
- Astbury challenges the notion that childbirth was exclusively female; men and non-kin (like servants) played important roles, especially in elite homes.
- Gendered labor: While women enacted much of the bodily and emotional work, men contributed materially, and their involvement was culturally expected and judged.
“... reveals how active men were in making babies... and all these other household members... servants... also put in work in order to raise children, assist pregnant women, etc.” (Astbury, 08:44)
4. Fertility: Gendered Responsibility, Remedies, and Shame
[13:13]
- Both men and women worried about fertility/barrenness, but the labor of seeking remedies often fell on women.
- Gendered shame: Male infertility (impotence, “weak seed”) was recognized but buried in shame; treatments aimed at women, even for male problems.
- Example: A recipe for anointing the husband's penis to help the wife's fertility.
“...although men and women are very concerned about fertility... it’s often kind of redounds to women to do that work, whether that be finding the remedies for both parties...” (Astbury, 13:13)
5. The Anxiety and Uncertainty of Pregnancy Recognition
[17:55]
- Married women (and men) closely monitored bodies, keeping diaries and records to legitimize conception dates and ensure the child’s legitimacy.
- Protestant self-examination culture encouraged attention to bodily signs as reflections of one’s spiritual state.
- Contrary to historiographical consensus, many people claimed to know pregnancy status before "quickening" (first fetal movement).
“Medical guides expect that you might be able to know you’re pregnant immediately upon conception, which, of course, doesn't bear out in diaries and letters. But nevertheless, people... write that they think they’re pregnant much sooner...” (Astbury, 18:13)
6. Material Culture of Childbirth and Gendered Expectations
[23:03]
- Childbirth preparations involved borrowing/gifting linens, food, swaddling bands, birthing chairs, with both husbands and wives actively participating.
- Men judged for failing to provide; their provisioning shaped status and could support women’s claims in marital disputes.
“...he’s provided as well as he would for a cow in her calving...” (Astbury recalling a letter, 25:49)
7. The Rise of Male Midwives and the Changing Birth Room
[28:00]
- 18th-century England saw increasing male involvement (physician "man-midwives"); previously, midwifery was almost exclusively female.
- Factors: Instrumental skills (forceps), print culture marketing, and elite families’ desires for status.
- Male involvement is less rupture than often depicted, as men were always involved materially/socially.
- Example: A man-midwife (Hugh Chamberlain) was paid 100 guineas, though a female midwife did most of the labor.
“...with these man midwives, they become almost sort of minor celebrities within an elite London kind of culture.” (Astbury, 32:53)
8. Childbirth, Recovery, and the Limits of Contemporary Medical Ideals
[33:46]
- Ideals: Painful birth followed by expected bleeding for a month, tying "recovery" to church ceremonial return.
- Reality: Many women’s physical recoveries diverged—bleeding patterns varied, breast-related issues were common and under-acknowledged by male practitioners.
- Full recovery, often defined as readiness for another conception, could take months or years.
“What I wanted to do in that chapter... was really investigate what early modern people thought recovery was as a destination from childbirth. And what I discovered was that these medical ideas definitely didn’t map on to the ways in which women and families experienced recovery...” (Astbury, 36:51)
9. Early Modern Households: Beyond the Nuclear Family
[40:37]
- Household included kin and non-kin, notably servants, who were central to infant care.
- Wet-nursing often involved recruiting former or current household members (servants) rather than sending children away.
- Emotional bonds between infants and wet nurses rarely acknowledged in sources.
“...for these kind of families, having somebody who's known to them and has formerly kind of been part of that household is a more attractive option than having a newcomer.” (Astbury, 41:00)
10. The Stakes of Making Babies: Social, Religious, and Personal
[46:19]
- Childbearing was a public, religious duty—proof of godliness, marriage legitimacy, and social status.
- Successful reproduction reaffirmed the family’s name and reputation; central to men’s status as well as women’s.
“...the process of kind of making babies sits at the sort of apex of all of these medical and social and emotional and religious concerns. So it becomes a real focus point for a lot of these anxieties.” (Astbury, 48:25)
11. Reflections: Historical Perspectives on Modern Childbearing
[49:36]
- Astbury challenges nostalgia for a “better” pre-medicalized past; ideals and anxieties around childbirth are historically contingent and persistent.
- The fantasy of a lost era of female solidarity/agency is unsupported; pressure and judgment shaped experiences then and now.
- Personal note: Astbury is currently pregnant, giving new resonance to her research.
“...the fantasy of a past in which women unconditionally supported one another and had a good time of it was never commonplace. And what we define as natural in childbirth is very historically contingent.” (Astbury, 51:02)
12. Future Research
[53:50]
- Next project: The history of animal medicine and veterinary care, focusing on husbandry, gender, and care vs. cruelty in early modern England.
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
- “The early modern period... is a good test case as a historian for understanding… how, particularly with regards to the body... our definitions of health and illness are so historically contingent.” (Astbury, 02:55)
- “Generation... seemed to me important to look at those, I guess, what we often call actors, categories or the terms that early modern people use… and not to... put these harsh of divisions in place...” (Astbury, 05:43)
- “There’s this idea... that childbirth might have been a space in the past in which women experienced agency... a space and a time in which women unequivocally supported one another... There’s been a lot of work since to show that’s not necessarily the case…” (Astbury, 08:44)
- “...both men and women are very concerned about fertility... but it’s often kind of redounds to women to do that work... Even treatments for men are often taken by the woman…” (Astbury, 13:13)
- “...they often represent... during the lying-in period women are not meant to really be doing any kind of physical work... and yet childbearing guides are often extremely vague about who’s going to do this infant care…” (Astbury, 43:06)
- “...the process of kind of making babies sits at the apex of all of these medical and social and emotional and religious concerns.” (Astbury, 48:25)
- “One of those ideas is... that people in the past got it right somehow... before medicalization... that somehow women and families had it better... my book shows that that is... a fantasy.” (Astbury, 51:02)
Timestamps for Key Segments
| Timestamp | Topic | |:-------------:|:----------| | [01:35] | Introduction to episode/Guest intro | | [02:11] | Astbury’s background and academic journey | | [05:06] | Terminology: ‘Generation’ vs. ‘Reproduction’ | | [08:25] | Households/family as site of generation and birth | | [13:13] | Fertility, gender, shame, and remedies | | [17:55] | Pregnancy recognition, quickening, and self-writing | | [23:03] | Material culture, gendered responsibilities in childbirth| | [28:00] | Male midwives, shifting birth room dynamics | | [33:46] | Birth, recovery, and medical/social expectations | | [40:37] | Early modern household, wet nurses, and infant care | | [46:19] | Why making babies mattered: social and religious stakes | | [49:36] | Modern relevance, natural childbirth, and presentism | | [53:50] | Astbury’s next research: animal medicine/husbandry |
Conclusion
Leah Astbury’s Making Babies in Early Modern England reframes the history of reproduction as a complex, deeply social and material process, challenging assumptions about historical gendered spaces and roles. By situating "generation" within the broader household and cultural context, Astbury reveals the multifaceted anxieties and labors involved, many of which echo into modern debates about childbirth, parenting, and women's agency. The episode offers nuance, wit, and a wealth of detail, bridging past and present understandings of making—and caring for—babies.