‘Viewing the Pelvis’: Race, Culture and the Making of ‘Natural’ Childbirth Between Colonial India and Europe

Kathleen Olga Vaughan (1869–1956) was a British medical doctor and obstetrician who worked in colonial India from 1903 to the mid-1920s. Unlike most of her contemporaries, she rejected racial explanations for childbirth complications, instead attributing them to pelvic anatomy. Based on her observations in India, Vaughan believed that the squatting position, commonly used by ‘native’ populations in daily life and childbirth, contributed to the healthy and functional development of the pelvis and to safer deliveries. Upon returning to Europe, she sought to validate her hypothesis scientifically and advocated for ‘civilised’ women to adopt practices from supposedly ‘less civilised’ societies. Through medical journals and her clinical practice, she promoted prenatal physical training to enhance pelvic flexibility, while engaging with the growing movement against the medicalisation of childbirth. This article examines Vaughan’s work, exploring how colonial encounters shaped ideas, practices and ideologies surrounding natural childbirth in the West. It also shows how the return to nature that Vaughan propounded as a form of prenatal care was deeply embedded in contemporary eugenic thought, reflecting broader concerns with white bodily improvement.