Leading gender and science scholar Sarah S. Richardson charts the untold history of the idea that a womanusquo;s health and behavior during pregnancy can have long-term effects on her descendantstsquo; health and welfare.
The idea that a woman may leave a biological trace on her gestating offspring has long been a commonplace folk intuition and a matter of scientific intrigue, but the form of that ideandash;and its staggering implications for maternal well-being and reproductive autonomysdash;has changed dramatically over time. Beginning with the advent of modern genetics at the turn of the twentieth century, biomedical scientists dismissed any notion that a motherddash;except in cases of extreme deprivation or injuryndash;could alter her offspringosquo;s traits. Consensus asserted that a child>squo;s fate was set by a combination of its genes and post-birth upbringing.
Over the last fifty years, however, this consensus was dismantled, and today, research on the intrauterine environment and its effects on the fetus is emerging as a robust program of study in medicine, public health, psychology, evolutionary biology, and genomics. Collectively, these sciences argue that a womanpsquo;s experiences, behaviors, and physiology can have life-altering effects on offspring development. Tracing a genealogy of ideas about heredity and maternal-fetal effects, The Maternal Imprint offers a critical analysis of conceptual and ethical issues provoked by the striking rise of epigenetics and fetal origins science in postgenomic biology today.
