Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Like Mother, Like Child: Investigating Perinatal and Maternal Health Stress in Post-Medieval London

Hodson, C.M.; Gowland, R.L.

Like Mother, Like Child: Investigating Perinatal and Maternal Health Stress in Post-Medieval London Thumbnail


Authors

C.M. Hodson



Contributors

Sian Halcrow
Editor

Abstract

Post-Medieval London (sixteenth-nineteenth centuries) was a stressful environment for the poor. Overcrowded and squalid housing, physically demanding and risky working conditions, air and water pollution, inadequate diet and exposure to infectious diseases created high levels of morbidity and low life expectancy. All of these factors pressed with particular severity on the lowest members of the social strata, with burgeoning disparities in health between the richest and poorest. Foetal, perinatal and infant skeletal remains provide the most sensitive source of bioarchaeological information regarding past population health and in particular maternal well-being. This chapter examined the evidence for chronic growth and health disruption in 136 foetal, perinatal and infant skeletons from four low-status cemetery samples in post-medieval London. The aim of this study was to consider the impact of poverty on the maternal-infant nexus, through an analysis of evidence of growth disruption and pathological lesions. The results highlight the dire consequences of poverty in London during this period from the very earliest moments of life.

Citation

Hodson, C., & Gowland, R. (2019). Like Mother, Like Child: Investigating Perinatal and Maternal Health Stress in Post-Medieval London. In R. Gowland, & S. Halcrow (Eds.), The mother-infant nexus in anthropology : small beginnings, significant outcomes (39-64). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27393-4_3

Online Publication Date Oct 26, 2019
Publication Date Oct 26, 2019
Deposit Date Dec 12, 2019
Publicly Available Date Oct 26, 2021
Publisher Springer Verlag
Pages 39-64
Series Title Bioarchaeology and social theory
Book Title The mother-infant nexus in anthropology : small beginnings, significant outcomes.
ISBN 9783030273927
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27393-4_3

Files

Accepted Book Chapter (916 Kb)
PDF

Copyright Statement
This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an book chapter published in The mother-infant nexus in anthropology : small beginnings, significant outcomes. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27393-4_3




You might also like



Downloadable Citations