Childbirth in Ancient Greece and Rome: basic bibliography Véronique Dasen, ‘Multiple Births in Graeco-Roman Antiquity,’ Oxford Journal of Archaeology 16.1 (1997) 49-63 Dasen has also published on other topics to do with the ‘unnatural’ body, including disabilities. She is particularly strong on the archaeological evidence. Véronique Dasen, and Sandrine Ducaté-Paarmann, ‘Hysteria and Metaphors of the Uterus in Classical Antiquity’, in Silvia Schroer (ed.), Images and Gender. Contributions to the Hermeneutics of Reading Ancient Art, Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 220 (Fribourg: Academic Press, 2006), 239–62. Lesley Dean-Jones, Women's Bodies in Classical Greek Science, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993 Concentrates on 5th/4th c BC and on comparing aspects of women’s bodies as discussed in Aristotle, with what the Hippocratic medical writings say Nancy Demand, Birth, Death, and Motherhood in Classical Greece, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994 When this came out it was quite controversial due to the claim that midwives could improve their status by working alongside a Hippocratic male doctor under his supervision. Also has interesting material on the effects of malaria on giving birth, and on gravestones that appear to commemorate women who died in childbirth, but could equally well commemorate midwives Rebecca Flemming, Medicine and the Making of Roman Women. Gender, Nature and Authority from Celsus to Galen, New York: Oxford University Press, 2000 A rare book in that it focuses on the Roman world Valerie French, ‘Midwives and Maternity Care in the Greco-Roman World,’ Helios 13 (1987) 69-84 Still the standard article on this topic Ann E. Hanson, ‘The Eight Months' Child and the Etiquette of Birth: Obsit Omen!,’ Bulletin of the History of Medicine 61 (1987) 589-602 Hanson looks at the belief that the eight months child always dies whereas the seven month child may survive, interpreting this in terms of providing a let-out clause for the men and women assisting in childbirth, and for any feelings of guilt or responsibility on the part of the mother or other family members Ann E. Hanson, ‘A division of labor. Roles for men in Greek and Roman births,’ Thamyris. Mythmaking from past to present 1,2, Amsterdam (1994) 157-202 Hanson argues persuasively that men were involved in birthing, suggesting birth was a ‘crowded scene’ in which more and more helpers would be added on if things went wrong Helen King, Hippocrates’ Woman: Reading the Female Body in Ancient Greece, London: Routledge, 1998 Discusses a wide range of aspects of ancient women’s medicine and its relationship to beliefs about the female body found in myth and ritual. Includes a chapter on the history of ‘hysteria’ Helen King, The One-Sex Body on Trial: The Classical and Early Modern Evidence, Farnham: Ashgate, 2013 Four chapters focus on the ancient story of Agnodice, ‘the first midwife’, and how this was interpreted up to the nineteenth century as ideas about who should attend women in childbirth were contested Professor Helen King Open University UK .