Interesting review in the TLS of three books that together seem to provide a pretty solid summary of the state of knowledge about past and present childbirth, and reproductive technology.

A couple of samples:

…infant mortality jumped 50 per cent between 1915 and 1929 in the United States in lockstep with the widespread across-class shift from home to hospital.
[Today] Women are 70 per cent more likely to die in childbirth in the US than in Europe.

And it seems not all of the latter figure can be put down to poverty – bad medicine has quite a bit to do with it as well.

A fascinating example:

Women make up only 1 per cent of chess Grandmasters. Yet according to a new study their under-performance is not down to lack of ability, but an awareness that they are expected to do badly. Researchers have shown that when women are under the illusion their opponent is female, they performed as well as the men. However their performance dropped by 50 per cent when they were aware they were playing a man. The researchers said women face accusations of “inferior (‘girl’s’) play, but when they perform exceptionally well, their femininity is also often doubted”.
They say the findings also suggest that women tend to approach chess games more cautiously and with less self-confidence, which may explain their worldwide under-representation and under-performance. “Women seem disadvantaged not because they are lacking cognitive or spatial abilities” but because of their mental approach to tournaments

And also very good, sensible news: Brazil is going to subsidise birth control pills for the poor.

Dulce Xavier, a Catholic who runs a group advocating for women’s reproductive rights, says Brazilians simply aren’t listening to the Vatican.
“There is total disobedience to church doctrine on sexual reproduction,” she says. “The majority of Catholics here use condoms, take the pill and support limited access to abortion.”
According to the government’s own estimates as many as one million women a year are having abortions in Brazil, even though they’re illegal, except for cases of rape or where a mother’s life is in danger.
About 4,000 women die from the procedures annually, making it the fourth-leading cause of maternal death in Brazil after hypertension, hemorrhages and infection.

Why particularly the Pope? Well he was there two weeks ago running all the usual “I want to control women’s bodies” stuff.