The kids and the nation: medical discourses about maternity and child health (Portugal, 1930s)

Proceedings of The 3rd International Conference on Gender Studies and Sexuality

Year: 2023

DOI:

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The kids and the nation: medical discourses about maternity and child health (Portugal, 1930s)

Elisa Fauth

ABSTRACT: 

The concern about the physiological decadence of the race in Portugal started to gain importance around the second half of the nineteenth century. By the beginning of the twentieth century, different physicians and scientists had studied this issue and pointed out that the biggest “problems of the Portuguese race” were venereal diseases, alcoholism, tuberculosis, and child mortality (VAQUINHAS, 1992). Taking this into consideration, this article aims to examine the medical discourses about maternity and child health, by analyzing a set of publications about these subjects. The collection of conferences and others was published by the Clinical Institute of Lisbon, written by physicians and their primary subject was child health and their mothers’ implication in the kids’ well-being. Throughout the investigation of this conferences, we intend to underline the importance given to motherhood and the role of women in raising healthy kids for the country. The objective of this analysis is to comprehend to what extent these discourses were influenced by other European countries, whether they were authoritarian regimes or not.

keywords: nationalism, child health, motherhood, race, medical discourses