Category Archives: Reproduction

Compiling an Oral History of Oral Contraceptives in Australia: It’s NOW or Never

by Managing Editor Posted on March 7, 2024

In this blog, Natasha Szuhan explores the history of oral contraceptives and the need for more voices and stories from early users of the Pill in Australia from 1961-1991. These last months have been beset with death and debility. Not … Continue reading →

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“Modern Women Prefer Modess”: Gender and menstruation in World War II Australia

by Managing Editor Posted on July 13, 2022

Rachel Harris explores the history of menstrual hygiene products, including their availability, variety, and use, in Australia during World War II. Historians have examined many of the privations experienced by Australian women during World War II. Something that has received less … Continue reading →

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Where the domestic meets the global: Writing the history of assisted reproduction

by Managing Editor Posted on February 1, 2020

Vera Mackie, Nicola J. Marks and Sarah Ferber reveal some of the stories that make up the global history of IVF and assisted reproduction. Candice Reed was born on 23 June 1980 in Melbourne. She was conceived through in vitro … Continue reading →

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Reproduction regulation, abortion and Indigenous women since the 1970s

by Managing Editor Posted on February 25, 2018

Cassandra Byrnes explores the complex relationship between reproduction regulation, feminism and race in Australia since the 1970s. Tasmania’s primary surgical abortion service provider closed down in the first two weeks of 2018. This decision disproportionately affects pregnant people who cannot … Continue reading →

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Contraception and reproduction in Australia’s past (or: please don’t try these methods at home)

by Managing Editor Posted on February 19, 2018

Lisa Featherstone discusses contraception and reproduction in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Australia, a period of high anxieties about national reproductive imperatives.   By the mid-1880s, the birth-rate had begun to fall across women from all classes in white Australian society. This was surprising, … Continue reading →

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A pregnant pause? Filling in the history of pregnancy and dress

by Managing Editor Posted on February 13, 2018

Catriona Fisk explores the material and visual record of fashions and dress for pregnant women across the nineteenth century. It is a fact generally acknowledged that pregnancy was a central component of women’s historical experiences. Just as widely accepted is … Continue reading →

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The non-history of other births: molar pregnancy and early modern false conceptions

by Managing Editor Posted on February 8, 2018

The VIDA blog reproduction series begins with Paige Donaghy’s exploration of how a history of early modern “other” births might create a better understanding of women’s varied experiences of pregnancy, past and present. In the sixteenth-century medical treatise On the … Continue reading →

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