Book ID: CBB755948278

The Maternal Imprint: The Contested Science of Maternal-Fetal Effects (2021)

unapi

Richardson, Sarah S. (Author)


University of Chicago Press


Publication Date: 2021
Physical Details: 376
Language: English

Leading gender and science scholar Sarah S. Richardson charts the untold history of the idea that a woman’s health and behavior during pregnancy can have long-term effects on her descendants’ health and welfare. The idea that a woman may leave a biological trace on her gestating offspring has long been a commonplace folk intuition and a matter of scientific intrigue, but the form of that idea—and its staggering implications for maternal well-being and reproductive autonomy—has changed dramatically over time. Beginning with the advent of modern genetics at the turn of the twentieth century, biomedical scientists dismissed any notion that a mother—except in cases of extreme deprivation or injury—could alter her offspring’s traits. Consensus asserted that a child’s fate was set by a combination of its genes and post-birth upbringing.   Over the last fifty years, however, this consensus was dismantled, and today, research on the intrauterine environment and its effects on the fetus is emerging as a robust program of study in medicine, public health, psychology, evolutionary biology, and genomics. Collectively, these sciences argue that a woman’s experiences, behaviors, and physiology can have life-altering effects on offspring development. Tracing a genealogy of ideas about heredity and maternal-fetal effects, The Maternal Imprint offers a critical analysis of conceptual and ethical issues provoked by the striking rise of epigenetics and fetal origins science in postgenomic biology today.

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Reviewed By

Review Susanne Schmidt (2023) Review of "Weighing the Future: Race, Science, and Pregnancy Trials in the Postgenomic Era". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 189-192). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB755948278/

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Authors & Contributors
Sarah Fox
Arena, Francesca
Michelle Millar Fisher
Fornasin, Alessio
Theobald, Brianna
Howard, Agnes R
Concepts
Obstetrics and pregnancy
Women and health
Mothers and children
Maternal health services
Public health
Childbirth
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
19th century
18th century
17th century
Places
United States
England
Great Britain
Brazil
Madrid (Spain)
North America: United States; Canada
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