Mothers, infants, and the state in the twentieth century: an introduction to the history of maternity in Central and Eastern Europe

Throughout the long twentieth century, maternity in Central Eastern Europe (CEE) has witnessed enormous transformations characterized by the reshaping of mothers’ ascribed and expected roles, along with their maternal duties, and their lived experiences. These transformations are worth exploring as maternity is essential to the survival of both the individual child and of humanity in general, which is why it has always had a particular social and political relevance. On this basis, this special issue approaches the history of maternity as a site of social, cultural, political as well as medical intervention, while focusing on case studies from CEE. The dozen articles survey notions, practices, and experiences of maternity in the long twentieth century. Geographically, the authors consider a wide swath of Central and Eastern Europe, ranging from interwar Hungary, Poland, Romania and Lithuania to Soviet Central Asia, state-socialist Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia, to post-Soviet Ukraine. The articles engage with the various ways states and societies in CEE interpreted and applied ‘modern’ and ‘scientific’ notions and practices of maternity. The case studies scrutinize medical advancements, state policies, and cultural traditions that shaped and affected maternal health practices, considering the intersections between private lives, public health, and politics. When considered from a historical perspective, despite rhetorical or discursive evidence elevating mothers’ position in society and the state, improvements in maternal and infant care were, as this special issue argues, seldom primarily grounded in a concern about mothers’ wellbeing. Rather, such policies and their implementation were more focused on the survival and development of the unborn or newborn child, and more generally on the future of the respective nation. Mothers were secondary to their offspring, and caring for mothers was a means to an end, rather than an end in itself.