Designing Motherhood: Things That Make and Break Our Births

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Designing Motherhood: Things That Make and Break Our Births

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A first-of-its-kind consideration of the arc of human reproduction through the lens of design, Designing Motherhood is a book, exhibition, a StoryBank oral history project, and a series of public programs in collaboration with Maternity Care Coalition.

08/07/2026

"Butcher, baker, cabinetmaker: photographs of women at work"
by Abigail Heyman and Wendy Saul
1978

07/31/2026

Designing Motherhood curatorial team member Michelle was interviewed for the great 99% Invisible podcast on one of our all-time fave designs, the Baby Box. We've had it in every one of our seven exhibitions (and counting) so far.

A special thanks to journalist and storyteller Olivia Humphreys and to sound engineer Jayson De Leon.

She talks about its broader social history, but also about the place in her own family history. Scroll for a special picture and look in our stories for the link to listen ❤️

06/29/2026

Postpartum stress incontinence and design: discuss ...

Have you experienced postpartum stress incontinence? And if so, what are the designs -- object, exercise, medical, or other -- that have truly made a difference for you, if any?

Pictured above is an over-the-counter design (one of several on the market) that gets inserted vaginally like a tampon and supports the urethra to prevent leaks.

Michelle, our resident runner, has been testing this out and it's really made a difference – but doesn't work unless it's used in combination with pelvic floor exercises which she does guided by an app (you need to condition the pelvic muscles in order for any design to remain inserted -- you can't just size up or down and hope for the best).

Stress incontinence is a postpartum experience that can be positively impacted and sometimes solved completely by design, both physical designs like this one but also the design of postpartum support through community and conversation.

The more we ask runners who've given birth, the more we find our experience is not unusual -- and hear about timelines for recovery and tips for running again with confidence.

06/26/2026

First published as "Oppai No Himitsu" (A Story of the Breasts) in Japan in 1989, and published in English translation in 1999.

Written as part of a series that explains body functions to young readers, the illustrations are charming – although some of the captions belie the fact that the author did not always have stakeholder experience in his subject matter ...

06/18/2026

"Pregnant Female Anatomy" (1491) by Joannes de Ketham (15th Cen.) in the collection of the Harvey Cushing / John Hay Whitney Medical Library. Spotted in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's current exhibition on Raphael by friend of DM Lauren Rosati.

From the exhibition website: Raphael’s mother died of childbirth-related complications in 1491, the year this hand-colored woodcut print was made. Two of his siblings died in infancy. Knowledge of gynecology and obstetrics was scarce, and pregnancy and childbirth extremely dangerous, and infant mortality rates were astronomically high in this era.

06/06/2026

Marcia Marcus Self-Portrait with Baby, 1971.

Marcus was a pioneering painter who died last year in her late 90s. Michelle's smart former MFA Boston colleague, Debra Lennard () is publishing a book and opening an exhibition this summer on Marcus' work and it looks wonderful. by the book and go see the exhibition!

Amongst many other aspects of MM's career -- which has been wholly under researched until very recently -- are her portraits of family and motherhood. Happy to have been there to witness this early idea spark and to see these great fruits several years later.

From a great article in Artnet last year on MM's work by Katie White:

"In the 1960s, both Marcus’s daughters Jane and Kate were born. For Marcus, always an independent mind, motherhood proved a place of deep creative fodder in an age when having a child was often regarded as the death knell for an artistic career (her husband at the time also embraced childcare, bucking conventions of the era).

She even made art on the days of her children’s births. “There’s a letter she’s written from the hospital room where Jane has just been born and she’s saying, ‘I snuck in a camera and a sketch pad and charcoal and I’m going to make some drawings. And I’ve taken some pictures. I don’t think I was allowed to,'” Prendergast said. “The fact that she had babies did not let a 24-hour labor practice stop her one bit.” On the subject of the birth of her second child, Marcus often recounted that she didn’t put her brushes down until her contractions were three minutes apart."

06/05/2026

Jess T. Dugan (American, b. 1986)
Self-portrait with Vanessa and Elinor (2 days old), 2018

We localize the DM checklist wherever the exhibition goes. At our second venue, the amazing MassArt Art Museum, we got to include the work of and it has remained a hands-down favorite for us and for audiences ever since.

We were therefore thrilled to receive a copy of Jess' new book, Love Pictures, this week. It is stunningly beautiful, a landmark book not just for photography but for all historians and writers and readers who think about themes of belonging, family, and the passage of time. We got a lump in our throat several times while reading through.

DM team member was honored to contribute an interview to the book (pics in stories).

Jess' creative practice centers around an exploration of identity—particularly gender and sexuality—through photography, video, and writing. As a q***r, non-binary person, Dugan’s work is motivated by an existential (and deeply human) need to understand and express themself and connect with others -- and oh, does their work do that in an exhibition context, and then some.

In this diptych, they share the birth of their first child. Their intention is to create work that facilitates intimacy and encourages empathy, understanding, and critical conversations about identity in contemporary social life. For us, also enabled audiences to see postpartum mesh underwear, a key design that often remains hidden. We are forever grateful to have been allowed to include this work in the DM show!

Super congrats to Jess and Charlotte Cotton and Radius Books. And thank you to MFA Boston curator, Karen Haas, who introduced Jess to us in the first place some years ago. Karen, you opened up new worlds for us and the DM project 💗

05/29/2026

These beautiful porcelain works by artist Ann Agee () make our hearts soar.

Thanks to the wonderful team at for introducing us to them this week on a visit to Wisconsin where Agee will have a major retrospective exhibition in 2027.

Agee smartly references the history of porcelain decorative figurines but instead of depicting pastoral scenes, she shows us the quotidian moments and joys of her own daily life that might otherwise go unseen and unremarked.

This includes the birth of her own children, Lucia and Emilio, from the early 2000s, madonna figures from 2020-21, a birth class (so good!!), and a carer carrying an infant from the 1990s.

We also got a sneak peek of some of the other works that will be on display -- we can't share pictures here so you'll just have to go see the exhibition!

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The earlier images here are courtesy P.P.O.W Gallery and the latter are from the collection website at PAFA in Philly 🙏

05/26/2026

She's almost five years old ...

Published in September 2021, the DM book remains a project of which we're hugely proud. It reflects the stories, voices, histories, ideas, urgencies, joy, and pain across the arc of human reproduction through chapters that focus on one hundred designed objects, systems, and ideas.

We are so lucky that it is home to a host of stellar contributors. Designed by the wonderful Natasha Chandani and Lana Cavar of .

Available from all good bookstores near you. We're always grateful when folks spot our book out in the wild and tell us, or send a copy to a friend ❤️

05/25/2026

"Evening Bath," 2026 by .

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Address

304 Pearl Street
Providence, RI

Website

http://designingmotherhood.org/

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