Birth concerns us all. Like death, it affects every human being without exception. The conditions that accompany pregnancy and birth shape our lives. Birth culture is the way a society shapes the start of life and the conditions it creates for it. The exhibition tells stories of traditional midwifery knowledge and medical achievements, of the worldwide rituals surrounding birth and the creation myths that have led to it. It provides insight into the everyday and living culture of human beings, helps us understand physiological processes, takes into account current findings and questions the possibilities of today’s reproductive technology. A Cultural History of Birth also addresses issues like women’s history, hostility to the body, power, capital, and basic human rights.

The exhibition forms the starting point of the Creative Europe project “Birth Cultures”. It will be shown for the first time in 2020 at the Frauenmuseum Hittisau (Austria) and will subsequently be presented in an adapted form at the Center of Gender Culture in Charkiw (Ukraine), at La Bonne Centre de Cultura de Dones Francesca Bonnemaison in Barcelona (Spain) as well as in the Women’s Museum Merano. The International Association of Women’s Museums (IAWM) provides numerous objects and stories.