This book is a study of fetal health from the 17th century to the present day principally among European and American populations. It is a contribution to both medical and demographic research using distinctly long-term and comparative perspectives. It provides an account of how fetal health and the risks facing the unborn (miscarriages, abortions, stillbirths) have changed, but it also offers an interpretation of the causes, one that focuses on the role of obstetrics and the epidemiology of maternal infections. The following themes are given particularly detailed treatment: varying cultural p ... More

This book is a study of fetal health from the 17th century to the present day principally among European and American populations. It is a contribution to both medical and demographic research using distinctly long-term and comparative perspectives. It provides an account of how fetal health and the risks facing the unborn (miscarriages, abortions, stillbirths) have changed, but it also offers an interpretation of the causes, one that focuses on the role of obstetrics and the epidemiology of maternal infections. The following themes are given particularly detailed treatment: varying cultural practices in the recognition of stillbirths, especially the critical ‘signs of life’; the age pattern of mortality risk between conception and live birth; comparative trends in late-fetal mortality and their causes; fetal mortality and obstetric care during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries; the contrasting approaches of the pathology and social obstetrics to the causes of fetal death. The study concludes with a discussion of the fetus as patient, which includes issues surrounding the legalization of abortion in many western countries and the public health challenges of persistently high mortality in less developed countries.