Model Mothers

Jewish Mothers and Maternity Provision in East London, 1870—1939

Bibliographic Data

ID19973308
AuthorsLara V Marks (0000-0002-8126-2170, corresponding author), Lara Marks
Year1994
Pages320
Publication date1994-05-26
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueModel mothers (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University PressOxford (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/oso/9780198204541.001.0001
OpenAlexW4388313732
Open LibraryOL1426861M
ISBN9780198204541
LanguageEN
Citations received12

This is the first scholarly study to focus on Jewish women's experience of childbirth and infant care. In late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Britain there was deep concern about the perceived physical and military deterioration of the nation, reflected in the diminishing birth rate, persistently high infant mortality, and the poor health of the working class, revealed by army recruitment. Many medical practitioners and politicians believed that Jewish mothers were `model mothers' whose exemplary care of their children offered a solution to these problems. Lara Marks assesses the extent to which the stereotype of Jewish mothers reflected the reality of their experience in East London between 1870 and 1939. Not only did they have to cope with extreme poverty, but as newly arrived immigrants had to deal with linguistic and cultural barriers, as well as the unfamiliarity of local medical facilities. Nevertheless, as Dr Marks shows, Jewish mothers and their infants had clearly indicated by the remarkably low rate of Jewish infant mortality, and she examines the reasons for this. Model Mothers makes important contributions to our knowledge of maternal and infant care in this period and to our understanding of the interactions between ethnicity and health-care

Childbirth · Ethnic group · Health care · Immigration · Infant mortality · Judaism · Political science · Population · Poverty · Pregnancy · Sociology · Stereotype (UML) · Australian History and Society · Demography · Gender Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology · Social Psychology · Child health services · Child welfare · emigration and immigration · England · Great britain · Health and hygiene · Infant health services · Infant Welfare · Infants · Infants, care and hygiene · Jewish women · Jews · London · Maternal and infant welfare · Maternal Health Services · Maternal Welfare · Women · Women's Health · Women's Health Services

Tools

Open DOI