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"An important contribution to understanding the cycle of pregnancy, birth – and death – in which Roman women lived. The world of Veturia, and of her invisible sisters throughout the Roman empire, comes alive in its pages."—Helen King, Times Literary Supplement

"Birthing Romans is a compelling and powerful book"—Gaia Gianni, American Journal of Philology

"A new history of Imperial Rome that analyzes social hierarchy, imperial stability, and cultural continuity. . . . Birthing Romans broadens the understanding of Roman society by shedding light on an oftenoverlooked component of social engineering: childbearing."—Choice

"Birthing Romans: Childbearing and its Risks in Imperial Rome offers an in-depth analysis of how pregnancy and childbirth were understood in the Roman Empire. . . . [and] presents a cohesive argument of sufficient weight to become a key work in discussions of pregnancy, childbirth and risk management in ancient societies."—Helena López Gómez, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"Bonnell Freidin has demonstrated the multileveled complexities of pregnancy and childbirth, from the individual to the social. This implies a new approach to already well-known facts of risks with childbearing in antiquity and presents an alternate way of writing ancient history."—Lena Larsson Lovén, American Historical Review

“Birthing Romans offers a new framework for understanding Roman childbearing, showing how it opens a window into Roman constructions of identity, social status, freedom and enslavement, cultures of risk, and blame. Rarely have I encountered such sympathetic writing—Freidin truly conveys the beauty and tragedy inherent in childbearing and its complex interplay with parenthood.”—Laurence Totelin, editor of A Cultural History of Medicine in Antiquity

“Freidin offers an intimate, multidimensional, theoretically informed, and deeply sympathetic account of the childbirth experiences of Roman women during the first three centuries of the Common Era. This beautifully written book will become a canonical intervention in the cultural history of the Roman imperial period.”—Cam Grey, author of Constructing Communities in the Late Roman Countryside