The Mothers of Modern Gynecology

Right Answers Mostly

Claire Donald & Tess Bellomo

Society & Culture, History, Tv & Film

4.6 • 764 Ratings

🗓️ 23 March 2026

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For most of human history, childbirth belonged to women. Midwives guided mothers through labor, cared for newborns, and held generations of medical knowledge within their communities. But over time, birth moved from homes to hospitals, and from the hands of women to the authority of male physicians. In this episode, we explore the hidden history of childbirth, the rise of modern gynecology, and the women whose bodies shaped the field but whose names were nearly erased from it. At the center of this story are three enslaved women in the 1840s American South: Anarcha, Betsey, and Lucy. Suffering from a devastating childbirth injury, they were subjected to years of experimental surgeries by physician J. Marion Sims, procedures performed without anesthesia or the ability to consent. Sims would later be celebrated as the “father of modern gynecology,” but the medical advancements credited to him were built on the pain, endurance, and forced labor of these women. We also trace the overlooked legacy of Black midwives, who for generations were the backbone of maternal healthcare in the United States. Once trusted community leaders and healers, they were gradually pushed out of medicine as childbirth became increasingly medicalized and controlled by white male physicians. Trigger Warning: This section of the episode addresses scientific experimentation on enslaved women and violation of their bodies. Created and produced by Tess Bellomo and Claire Donald For more RAM, go here! If you're interested in our premium channel for THREE bonus episodes for $7.99/month. Get added to close friends, hear about pop culture, and get to know us more! You also get the last FULL history episode here! HAPPY WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you're looking to ensure your place, Sheila's wheels are super ace.
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0:25.1	Sheila's wheels.com Welcome back to Write Answers Mostly, a podcast on what you didn't learn in history class,
0:59.9	but you really wanted to. My name is Tespelomo. And my name is Claire Donald. And we are in
1:04.6	Women's History Month. We've been having truly so much fun. So much fun. So much fun. So much range.
1:10.5	And this is an episode that we, it's quite different than last weeks, and everything's just going to be, it's going to be a variety, but that's women. Well, ain't that the truth, sis? Ain't that the truth? God, damn. I actually don't really know what we're talking about today. You know, at first I didn't either. And then I was like, let me make this episode. Like, it was fun because like normally on RAM we'd do a person or an event. And this was something that we had been requested to talk about, like the history of childbirth and what that's been like through different ages and locations and all of that. And then I was like, let me like map out this episode in a way that I think would be really
1:44.7	interesting.
1:46.4	So yeah, we're going to be talking about the history of childbirth, midwives, medical
1:50.7	erasure, and some fun little birthing facts.
1:54.9	And this is dedicated to all the moms out there.
1:56.8	Oh, my God.
1:57.5	Because my God, you guys do it all.
1:59.6	Who run in the world?
2:00.6	Moms. Literally. It's just so crazy. I think about this a lot, like, whether I'm high or I'm not high. And I'm just like, every single one of us grew in a woman's body. No, it's crazy. You ever look around a restaurant. You're like, you grew in a woman's body. You grew in a woman's body. I think about it all the time. And I also think about how none of us remember our birth. Well, thank God. But isn't that like crazy? Yeah. The way that our brains work. We talked about on the way home, not that long ago, like, thank God we don't remember being a baby because how frustrating it is to be a baby. It's probably traumatic. So I guess Claire, since know, neither of us have given birth and nor do we remember
2:36.8	our births.
2:37.5	The question I'm going to ask you is, do you remember the first time that you saw a birth scene
2:41.8	in TV or film or pop culture of like, that's what it is like for a woman to give birth?
2:47.4	I don't know if I remember the first time, but you know what sticks out to me is knocked up.
2:54.7	Oh my God.
2:55.7	Because they show like a little screen grab of the vagina.
	...

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