Designing Motherhood

More than eighty designs-iconic, archaic, quotidian, and taboo-that have defined arc of human reproduction. While birth often brings great joy, making babies is a knotty enterprise. The designed objects that surround us when it comes to menstruation, birth control, conception, pregnancy, childbirth, and early motherhood vary as oddly, messily, and dramatically as the stereotypes suggest. This smart, image-rich, fashion-forward, and design-driven book explores more than eighty designs-iconic, conceptual, archaic, titillating, emotionally charged, or just plain strange-that have defined the relationships between people and babies during the past century.