Patriarchal structures, feminine ideals and violent births: Historian Helena Barop takes us on a journey through the history of birth.
MYTHEN, MACHT & MUTTERMUND
(Myths, Might and Motherhood)
by Helena Barop
Siedler/PRH Germany, April 2026
Propagation is crucial for social cohesion and the survival of the human species, but in public discourse, actual experiences of being born and giving birth often remain in the dark. They are frequently considered a niche topic, with little social relevance. Barop’s brilliantly written feminist history traces this attitude back to a culture which to this day patronises and infantilises women during childbirth, and argues that violent births are the product of a long tradition of inequality and patriarchal structures. She takes us on a journey into the past, explodes myths and misconceptions, and interrogates our ideals and assumptions about what makes for a ‘normal birth’ – and reveals that births have changed constantly over the centuries, and that the woman and her baby have only recently been empowered and placed at the centre of the process.
MYTHEN, MACHT & MUTTERMUND is a masterful account that takes us through history’s delivery rooms, and tells a story of oppression and emancipation that affects us all: because childbirth, more than perhaps any other event, shapes and is shaped by our notion of womanhood.
Helena Barop, born in 1986, studied history and philosophy in Freiburg and Rome, and her PhD thesis « The Poppy Wars: US International Drug Control Policy, 1950–1979 » was widely discussed in the media. She has won the Freiburg University Gerhard Ritter Prize and the Association of German Historians’ World History Award, and was runner-up in the Körber Foundation’s German Research Prize for Arts and Cultural Studies. Her first non-fiction book, « Der große Rausch » (‘The great high’) appeared in 2023, and was named runner-up in the ‘humanities’ category at the Science Book of the Year awards.
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