Proficient nerd on most things baby/ culture/ history/book related. Disability advocate. Has a penchant for photography, languages, and panics when low on chocolate rations. Will embarrass self in any social situation to point out or pet other people's dogs. Habitual stumbler and tea drinker. People watcher, pizza slayer.
You might think that home infant breathing monitors are one of those IOT’s for 21st-century parents but their history goes back around 50 years and is darker than you can imagine. Reader discretion advised This post will include graphic descriptions of infant and child abuse, murder, and death; as well […]
It’s not often that we hear about ghost stories with infants as the protagonists, I’ve heard a couple (the disembodied crying baby or weirdness with baby monitors), but usually, if it’s a halfling ghost, it’ll be a child. But that wasn’t the case in Needham, Massachusetts in 1839– Just past […]
I wrote this article for the Iowa City Babywearers group blog, published February 18th, 2018. We decided to retire the group in March of this year and our website will be expiring in November, so I thought I would salvage a few of the most popular articles and share them […]
Today we’ll be looking at the evolving understanding of sudden infant death in history, focusing on the developments in the United States during the 20th century. Content Warning: This post will discuss sudden infant death, infanticide, and child abuse. If you know that you are uncomfortable with this subject manner […]
The runaway baby carriage is a classic film trope but does it really happen in real life? where did the trope get started?
Did they really feed sick babies sunless tanner in the 1950’s?
Today we’re looking at baby carriers in William Hogarth’s The March of the Guards to Finchley from 1750. The March of the Guards to Finchley, depicts a fictional troop of buffoonish British troops in Tottenham Court Road, in London, on their way to fight the Jacobean forces in the uprising […]
Rani Lakshmibai, also know as Rani of Jhansi, has inspired countless works of art featuring her charging into battle on horseback with a baby on her back. In this video, we learn more about her life and what led to the famous scene.
This painting by Jan Steen features common baby accessories from the 17th century: teethers, falling caps, and leading strings:
What qualified as a natural birth in the 16th century? In this post, we look at what the Birth of Mankind, from 1540, had to say about a natural birth in the Tudor Era including birthing positions, recipes for potions, pessaries, vaginal incense, pain relieving lubricants, herbal baths with toxic heavy metals, as well as what kind of diet and exercise the Tudor woman should have in later pregnancy and during labor.
