Designing Motherhood

Things That Make and Break Our Births

Birth is the way we all arrive in this world—and each of us will repeat, prevent, delay, or reject reproduction during our lives. As we do, we will interact with designs of all kinds: products, devices, programs, and policies. While being born is a universal human experience, the designs that shape that experience are not. 

Designs can make and break our experiences around reproduction, even if most of us are unaware of their development. Designing Motherhood invites us to consider why and how designs that facilitate reproductive health have been developed and to ponder their social, economic, and political implications. This exhibition highlights how birth and the culture that surrounds it affect every living person. These are not just women’s issues; they are human issues and they matter to us all. 

This exhibition features topics including our bodies, reproduction, health care, and the care and feeding of babies.

Below are some highlights featured in the galleries.

  • Image of a Stork brand glass baby bottle and its original blue box it was packaged in ca. early 20th century
  • Image of a red chrome breast pump
  • Image of a 183 baby monitor set and original box by Fisher-Price on a white background
  • Black and white image of a Black mother with short hair leaning in to kiss her daughter in their living room.
  • Image of a 1930's era mensuration prediction dial made of paper with a pencil attached with pink thread.
  • Image of a whote and blue striped infant hospital blanket on a white background
  • image of a contemporary plastic oral contraceptive dial pack
  • image of a pink menstruation cup from the 1930s
  • art image of a pink sculpture of a uterus with barbed wire fallopian tubes.
  • Image of a Stork brand glass baby bottle and its original blue box it was packaged in ca. early 20th century
    Glass Baby Bottle, early 20th century. Photo: Erik Gould. Image courtesy Designing Motherhood
  • Image of a red chrome breast pump
    Pulled, 2017, by Aimee Koran. Photo: Constance Mensh. Courtesy of Aimee Koran.
  • Image of a 183 baby monitor set and original box by Fisher-Price on a white background
    Fisher-Price Nursery Monitor, 1983. Photo: Erik Gould. Image courtesy Designing Motherhood
  • Black and white image of a Black mother with short hair leaning in to kiss her daughter in their living room.
    Darquita with her mother Denyeta, Alexandria, VA, 1979. From “Eye to Eye: Portraits of Lesbians.”
  • Image of a 1930's era mensuration prediction dial made of paper with a pencil attached with pink thread.
    Scientific Prediction Dial, c. 1930s. Photo: Erik Gould. Image courtesy Designing Motherhood.
  • Image of a whote and blue striped infant hospital blanket on a white background
    Kuddle-Up Blanket, first produced in the 1950s. Manufactured by Medline Industries (formerly Mills Hospital Supply). Photo: Erik Gould. Image courtesy Designing Motherhood.
  • image of a contemporary plastic oral contraceptive dial pack
    DialPak Contraceptive Dispenser, ca. 2001. Invented by David P. Wagner
 (American, b. 20th century) in 1964. Photo: Erik Gould. Image courtesy Designing Motherhood.
  • image of a pink menstruation cup from the 1930s
    Tassette, invented 1937 and produced under this name from 1959. Leona Watson Chalmers (American, 20th century) and Robert P. Oreck (American, 20th century). Photo: Erik Gould. Image courtesy Designing Motherhood.
  • Image of a purple and pink crocheted breast and baby set used for breastfeeding demonstration.
  • art image of a pink sculpture of a uterus with barbed wire fallopian tubes.
    Holly Ballard Martz (American, b. 1965), Whether and When, 2020. Laboratory glass (separatory funnel, evaporator flasks, stopcock), PVC tubing, steel, paint.

© 2023-2024 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. All rights reserved.