The Library of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has a particularly rich collection - over 2,000 books- of some of the earliest printed works on obstetrics and women’s healthcare from across Europe. They date back some 500 years, to the early decades of printing in Europe, and complement the twentieth-century written and photographic archival records of the Royal College of Midwives, housed in the shared Library.
The poster exhibition organised to launch the Knowledge Exchange partnership showcased some of the historic holdings of the RCOG. It aimed to encourage dialogue between academic researchers and healthcare practitioners, and to provide a forum for debates on current issues to be understood from an historical perspective. The exhibition was displayed from September 2015-July 2017. Several of the posters are shown here.
Programme for the study day `Celebrating 500 years of Pregnancy and Childbirth (4th September 2015)
- Welcome addresses by CEO of RCOG, and by Director of Midwifery, RCM
- Talk on historical debates over positions for delivery: Professor Valerie Worth Stylianou (University of Oxford) and Dr Janette Allotey (University of Manchester)
- Keynote talk + discussion: Mr David Hutchon (FRCOG), ‘The history of the practice of early cord-clamping’
- Visit to Library display, and tour of RCOG
- Workshop 1: led by Dr Julia Allison (University of Nottingham), ‘Material comforts of the birthing room in early modern England: archival records’
- Workshop 2: led by Professor Billie Hunter (Professor of Midwifery, University of Cardiff), ‘ Material comforts of the birthing room in the 20th-century: oral histories’
- Concluding plenary: the role of knowledge exchange for the history of pregnancy and birth
