A Womb of One’s Own: Lost Histories of Childbirth in Ancient Rome recovers unsung stories of girls and women through literary, bioarcheological, and funerary sources, according to a report published by isthmus.com.
Tara Mulder Examines Ancient Roman Childbirth History
Historical records from ancient Rome heavily prioritize explicit sexual images and military exploits over the realities of reproduction, according to Tara Mulder’s research. Mulder tells isthmus.com that surviving records feature hundreds of explicit sexual images, yet fewer than 10 descriptions of childbirth survive from the era. This imbalance emerges from a historical record shaped primarily by men telling stories of war rather than women documenting birth, according to the book.
The text draws on a unique background. As the daughter of a homebirth midwife and an assistant at more than two dozen births, Mulder incorporates personal experience alongside bioarcheological and literary evidence. The resulting work uses a series of short vignettes to capture vivid, fragmentary bits of evidence regarding how ancient Roman women managed fertility, pregnancy, and breastfeeding.
Empress Julia Agrippina Documented a Rare Breech Birth
One notable historical figure featured in the research is empress Julia Agrippina, who lived from 15 to 59 CE. As the literate younger sister of the emperor Caligula, Agrippina documented the breech birth of her only child, the emperor Nero. Although Agrippina’s original account does not survive, classical writers such as Pliny the Elder referenced it. Mulder notes that the survival of both mother and son during a breech birth demonstrates that childbirth in antiquity wasn’t always as dangerous as it is made out to be.
Other everyday women emerge from historical medical texts, such as a patient named Cyrilla. Recorded only as “Boethus’s wife” by the physician Galen due to a wealthy husband hiring him for heavy vaginal discharge, Cyrilla receives her first name in Mulder’s modern retelling.
Upcoming Public Appearance at UW-Madison
Tara Mulder will discuss her research on October 17 in a conversation with Kate Phelps of the UW-Madison Department of Gender and Women’s Studies. The event highlights the release of the book published by the University of California Press.
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