Hunger Strikes and Baby Units: Women and prison health
29 May 2025, 18:00 - 19:30
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An online talk on the history of maternal health and women campaigners in the prison system.
It was the poor standards of maternity care in women’s prisons that led to the introduction of the first trained nurses to Holloway Prison in 1919. In this talk, Rachel Bennett outlines the history of maternal health in the prison system, while Ian Miller explores another side of women’s health: the experience of women’s rights campaigners and others on hunger strike in prisons.
Speakers:
Ian Miller is Senior Lecturer in Medical History at Ulster University, Ian is author of eight medical history books including A History of Ireland in Ten Body Parts, shortlisted in the An Post Irish Book Awards as 'Hodges Figgis History Book of the Year 2024. Earlier books looked at the force-feeding of hunger strikers, how the Irish diet changed (mostly for the worse) after the Irish Famine and the surprisingly interesting history of the Victorian stomach.
Rachel Bennett has published in several areas of medical history in Britain, notably its intersections with criminal history. Her research includes examining medical beliefs and practices surrounding the criminal body since the eighteenth century. More recently her research has explored the experiences of incarcerated mothers in the English prison system since its inception in the mid-nineteenth century. Her most recent book Motherhood Confined: Maternal health in English prisons 1853-1955 was published with Manchester University Press and is freely available to read as an E-book.
Image: Suffragette chained to railings (The Women’s Library at LSE)
This event is open to all and takes place online only.
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RCN Library and Museum
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Page last updated - 12/05/2025
