Category: Babies
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10,000 Year Old Baby Carrier | Baby History Shorts
One of the complications of studying infant care in history, let alone prehistory (before writing), is that organic materials do not survive, that includes the clothing and carriers, as well as the bodies of infants themselves. The lack of remains has many causes: fewer births in preagricultural societies, infants grow into adults, and the remains…
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Lamashtu: Hide yo kids, hide yo wife | Baby History
Although not a (true) physician, she wraps with bandages, although not a (true) midwife, she wipes the baby clean.She keeps count of the months of the pregnant woman, cloistering off the doors of women about to give birth. – Old Babylonian (OB3) Lamashtu Incantation, lines 3–6, From Harvard Library Bulletin Lamashtu was a lion-headed hawk footed…
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Ancient Greek Potty Chairs | Baby History Shorts
In ancient Greece, baby potties doubled as baby chairs, on this wine jug, or chous, from the 5th century bce, the baby is playing with a rattle. At the bottom of a cup a woman interacts with a baby in a potty chair. And on this oil jug, a woman stands next to a baby…
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Seinfeld & Circumcision in the 1990s
I have been re-watching the Seinfeld series on Netflix. For the young whippersnappers, it was a primetime sitcom that ran from 1989 – 1998. The show was considered revolutionary for being about “nothing”, just the lives of its four main characters who live in Manhattan: Jerry Seinfeld, George Constanza, Eliane Bennis, and Cosmo Kramer. The…
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The Great Chicago Baby Mix-Up
If you give birth at a hospital how well do you trust that the baby you go home with is the baby you gave birth to? Today most hospitals still rely on name tags, though with some high-tech gadgets like security cameras, bar code scanners, foot and fingerprint readers, and of course there’s DNA testing…
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The Cholmondeley Sisters | Art History
The painting popularly known as The Cholmondeley Sisters resided at the Vale Royal Abbey in Cheshire, from approximately 1615 until it was sold in 1939 as Two Ladies of the Cholmondeley Family to the Howard Family. It was sold again in 1955 to an owner who presented it anonymously to the Tate Gallery in London,…
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The Formula Shortage
The ongoing infant formula shortage is history in the making. Events are still unfolding as I write this but I thought the situation merited more than the Rabbit Hole segment from last week. Edit: I’ve decided to add to this post instead of making new ones as I get more information. Table of Contents Unclean…
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What Did Jane Austen Think About Motherhood | Pt 2.3
In part one of this series, I covered the births of Jane Austen and her seven siblings, and the childcare strategies of her parents in 18th century England. Across the five chapters of part two, I will show that Jane’s attitudes about marriage were shaped– not by her desire to become a published author– but…
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Can Babies Breathe and Swallow at the Same Time? | Rabbit Holes #Shorts
The theory that babies can breathe and swallow at the same time dates back to the 19th century but is starting to trend again according to a Contemporary Pediatrics article published last week. “The idea that babies can breathe and swallow at the same time joins a very long list of incorrect/dangerous notions developed, often…
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Norman Barwin: Canada’s Sperm Swapping Fertility Doctor | Rabbit Holes #Shorts
A #short Rabbit Hole! Canada’s former “baby god” was busted for using his own sperm in fertility treatments. Norman Barwin, a former fertility specialist from Ottawa, so highly lauded as to be awarded the Order of Canada, fathered over twelve children using his own sperm instead of the sperm of the parents. Parents grew suspicious…
The Baby Historian 