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The Strange History of Making People

Groaning cakes, birthing chairs, and robot babies.

Christopher Kokoski
5 min readSep 15, 2021
Image of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein — The Strange History of Making People
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TThe history of childbirth is a fascinating topic. It’s not just an issue that affects women, but everyone. This article will explore some of the more surprising aspects of this complicated, messy, and essential process — from groaning cakes to robot babies.

This is the strange history of making people.

The History of Childbirth: Post-Partem Sherbert and Biscuits with Mice

Approximately two million years ago, there was a human woman who, in pain, gave birth. Due to the larger pelvis of our ancestors, the birthing process is theorized to have been much faster and simpler (and perhaps somewhat less painful).

Although I suspect that the woman giving birth might not agree.

Throughout the history of childbirth, different cultural practices have been introduced, such as midwives or doctors focusing on family relationships (just to name two examples).

In the Middle Ages, women in labor made special cakes — called groaning cakes:

The tradition of a groaning cake, or kimbly, at birth is an ancient one. Wives’ tales say that the scent of the groaning cake being baked in the birth house

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Christopher Kokoski
Christopher Kokoski

Written by Christopher Kokoski

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