The Foetus and Birthing Tools Across Disciplines
When: Wednesday, October 15, 2025, 5:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Where: Colette Bowe Room, Queens Building, Ground Floor, Queen Mary University of London, London, E1 4NS
An interdisciplinary panel and discussion, bringing together researchers from the Humanities and Medicine
This Centre for Childhood Cultures seminar will explore current research with a shared focus on the foetus and delivery past, present and future. Visiting speaker, the cultural historian Prof Lynne Vallone will be joined by a team from QM’s Women’s Health Research Unit. Short presentations will be followed by panel discussion and audience Q&A.
Image credit: Forceps assisted birth from L’art des accouchemens, 2nd volume, by Jean Louis Baudelocque Published, 1781. Plate XI. (Wellcome Images).
Speakers
Professor Lynne Vallone (Rutgers, Camden)
Prof Stamatina (Matina) Iliodromiti
Dr Marcus Cabrera-Dandy
Dr Elena Greco
Presentation summaries
Professor Lynne Vallone
Male-Practice: The Case of Forceps
She will be presenting work from her monograph which historicizes the cultural and political identities of the foetus, focusing here on a chapter on the male midwife and introduction of the forceps in the 18th century.
Prof Stamatina (Matina) Iliodromiti
Fetal Programming and Lifelong Health: This talk will explore how the intrauterine environment influences fetal development and shapes health outcomes later in life, highlighting mechanisms of fetal programming and implications for prevention.
Dr Elena Greco
The Evolution of Prenatal Screening for Chromosomal Abnormalities: This presentation will trace the history of prenatal screening for chromosomal abnormalities, from early biochemical and ultrasound approaches to current integrated and genomic technologies.
Dr Marcus Cabrera-Dandy
OdonAssist for assisted vaginal birth: This talk will discuss the background of assisted vaginal birth and the current data on outcomes following these procedures before an introduction to OdonAssist and the aims of introducing this new innovation into maternity care.
This event follows a sandpit run by QMUL's Early Lives Research Institute (ELRI) to be held in the same venue earlier on the same day. Register here:
Image credit: Forceps assisted birth from L’art des accouchemens, 2nd volume, by Jean Louis Baudelocque Published, 1781. Plate XI. (Wellcome Images).