“Originally published in 2004, Denyse Baillargeon’s Un Québec en mal d’enfants has finally been translated for an English-speaking audience. Babies for the Nation offers a riveting study of the medicalisation of maternity and maternal discourses in Quebec over the course of the twentieth century, bringing attention to an issue largely elided within existing studies of Quebec.... [A]n indispensable resource for social historians interested in the growth of maternal and medical ideologies in French-Canada.... Similarly, Baillargeon’s focus on the political movements and welfare groups that arose to help structure and safeguard new procedures and discourses also make this an interesting read for political historians concerned with the rise of state intervention in the home. Tamara Sonn argues on the study’s jacket that: ‘This dense and scholarly work...will probably remain a definitive work on the topic’, and this reviewer would have to strongly agree.”

— Sarah Galletly, University of Strathclyde, British Journal of Canadian Studies

“Babies for the Nation is a book of extraordinary historical detail and fine analytic insight. Through remarkably thorough historical research, Denyse Baillargeon has effectively opened to newcomers the empirical field of the history of maternity in Quebec. English-speaking Canadian historians are lucky to have the translation available. The writing in the book is smooth and elegant, and attribute for which we owe the translator, W. Donald Wilson, as much as we owe the original author. The book demonstrates Baillargeon’s mastery not only of the field and its analysis but also of the writer’s craft.”

— Robyn Braun, University of Alberta, H-Canada

Praise for Un Québec en mal d’enfants

“An indispensable work for scholars and students at the graduate level.... This dense and scholarly work, based on exhaustive original research, will probably remain the definitive work on the topic. It makes a contribution not only to the history of health and of women, but also to Quebec political history.”

— Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française

“This is an academically ambitious book, broad in scope and thoroughly researched [yet] it manages to be quite readable.... [I]s it relevant to a contemporary readership in Canada where infant mortality is much decreased, and the notion of a dictatorial and male-dominated medical systen is increasingly archaic? The answer is yes: Baillargeon’s book depicts the conflicts among the groups involved in public health and politics that is likely no different today.”

— Paul Moorehead MD, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Canadian Medical Association Journal

“[A] passionate work of social history.... It also has particular relevance at a time when many women are turning to midwives and choosing to have their babies at home—a modern-day challenge to the now hegemonic status of medicalized childbirth.”

— Kate Forrest, Montreal Review of Books