{"title":"Rebecca Whiteley","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eRebecca Whiteley\u003c\/strong\u003e offers a compelling exploration of human experience through her thoughtful and evocative writing. Her work often delves into themes of identity, family, and the moments that shape our lives, inviting readers to reflect on their own stories.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith a clear and intimate voice, Whiteley's books, such as \u003cem\u003eBirth Figures\u003c\/em\u003e, blend emotional depth with striking prose, creating a richly textured literary experience that resonates long after the final page.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"birth-figures-by-rebecca-whiteley-9780226823126","title":"Birth Figures","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe first full study of “birth figures,” a set of illustrations which were widely reproduced in early modern books on childbirth and midwifery.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBirth figures are printed images of the pregnant uterus, always shown in series, that depict the variety of ways in which a fetus can present for birth. Historian Rebecca Whiteley coined the term and here offers the first systematic analysis of the images’ creation, use, and impact. Whiteley reveals their origins in ancient medicine and explores their inclusion in many medieval gynaecological manuscripts, focusing on their explosion in printed midwifery and surgical books from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries in western Europe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDuring this period, birth figures formed a key part of the visual culture of medicine and midwifery and were widely produced. They reflected and shaped how the pregnant body was known and treated. By providing crucial bodily knowledge to midwives and surgeons, birth figures were also deeply entangled with wider cultural preoccupations with generation and creativity, female power and agency, knowledge and its dissemination, and even the condition of the human in the universe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eBirth Figures\u003c\/em\u003e studies how different kinds of people understood childbirth and engaged with midwifery manuals, from learned physicians to midwives to illiterate listeners. Rich and detailed, this vital history reveals the importance of birth figures in how midwifery was practised, and how people, both medical professionals and lay readers, envisioned and understood the mysterious state of pregnancy.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47430165954796,"sku":"9780226823126","price":93.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780226823126.jpg?v=1774559634"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/collections\/rebecca-whiteley.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}