Detailed Information on Publication Record

The study deals with the application of biopower in obstetrics on the periphery of the Czech lands on the example of three Silesian municipalities: agricultural, mostly Czech Kylešovice (political district Opava-venkov), industrial, mostly Polish Lazy (political district Fryštát) and agricultural, mostly German Stará Ves u Bílovce (political district Bílovec). Austrian Silesia served as a sample not only due to various social differentiation, but also for its interesting ethnic composition (Czechs, Germans and Poles). The work uses a comparison of narrative and statistical sources, which illustrate the real situation in obstetrics at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The analysis does show an improvement in obstetric care. Both the professionalization and medicalization of obstetrics and the increasing number of certified midwives had a great influence on this situation. The application of state supervision over obstetrics thus contributed to the improvement of human life on the periphery of the Czech lands, but it also had its limits. Although the care of the mother and child improved, during and after childbirth, the high infant mortality rate persisted until the pre-war period. Areas with a high migration rate (Lazy) and a rapid transformation from a purely agricultural area to a majority workers' area (Stará Ves u Bílovce) show significantly worse results. The limits of biopower were reflected in the persistent problem of fuss and the implementation of illegal abortions. Abortion has been relatively successful, while fuss has remained an almost insurmountable obstacle to the promotion of medicalisation in both industrial and agricultural areas until the First World War.