Mothering Sunday

[medievalrosalie]

Sunday, May 8th sees Mother's Day in Australia, so why not surprise someone with a book about medieval women who were also mothers too.

Medieval mothers faces many of the same challenges that modern mothers do. Contraception. Conception of a child. Birthing. Post natal depression. It's not something that we think about enough when we read history books with women in them. The focus is often on their achievements or marriages and subsequent offspring. Not much time is spent thinking about them as actual women. Real women.

Women who desperately didn't want to be mothers. Those who had motherhood thrust upon them, ready or not. Those who cared for their new babes, or parted from them is terrible circumstances.

This is a non-fiction book which touches on some heart-breaking court cases and other material from medieval manuscripts which affected the lives of medieval mothers and other women. Available from all good book stores, and these places here.

Comments

[sister_raphael]

Some bits of this are quite horrifying.

[medievalrosalie]

Absolutely. That's the sadness of history!