{"product_id":"the-maternal-imprint","title":"The Maternal Imprint","description":"\u003cb\u003eLeading gender and science scholar Sarah S. Richardson charts the untold history of the idea that a woman’s health and behavior during pregnancy can have long-term effects on her descendants’ health and welfare.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The idea that a woman may leave a biological trace on her gestating offspring has long been a commonplace folk intuition and a matter of scientific intrigue, but the form of that idea—and its staggering implications for maternal well-being and reproductive autonomy—has changed dramatically over time. Beginning with the advent of modern genetics at the turn of the twentieth century, biomedical scientists dismissed any notion that a mother—except in cases of extreme deprivation or injury—could alter her offspring’s traits. Consensus asserted that a child’s fate was set by a combination of its genes and post-birth upbringing.  \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Over the last fifty years, however, this consensus was dismantled, and today, research on the intrauterine environment and its effects on the fetus is emerging as a robust program of study in medicine, public health, psychology, evolutionary biology, and genomics. Collectively, these sciences argue that a woman’s experiences, behaviors, and physiology can have life-altering effects on offspring development. Tracing a genealogy of ideas about heredity and maternal-fetal effects, \u003ci\u003eThe Maternal Imprint \u003c\/i\u003eoffers a critical analysis of conceptual and ethical issues provoked by the striking rise of epigenetics and fetal origins science in postgenomic biology today.","brand":"Sarah S. Richardson","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42828177735741,"sku":"9780226544809","price":42.26,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/7689\/2989\/files\/9780226544809_ae3ccbc8-c84e-49ae-900b-6dffeb07ccac.jpg?v=1766949303","url":"https:\/\/www.palmleaf.com.au\/products\/the-maternal-imprint","provider":"Palmleaf","version":"1.0","type":"link"}