Regendering Childbirth: Catholicism, Medical Activism, and Birth Preparation in Post-War Poland Ignaciuk Klemba, Agata Koscianska, Agnieszka Psychoprophylaxis preparation for childbirth communism state socialism post-socialist transformation Poland history of gynaecology Catholicism anti-abortion activism gender history This article examines the work of the gynecologist Włodzimierz Fijałkowski, the key promoter of preparation for childbirth in Communist and early democratic Poland. From the late 1950s until the 1990s, Fijałkowski developed a childbirth preparation training protocol that served as an inspiration for childbirth preparation schools across the country. Through analysis of Fijałkowski’s publications in medical journals, books aimed at both professional and lay readers, visual aids for childbirth training, and archival material, we demonstrate that a specific vision of gender roles and relationships lay at the core of Fijałkowski’s psychoprophylactic project. This vision represented a re-definition and re-essentialization of femininity and masculinity, and motherhood and fatherhood, while simultaneously advocating for radical change in the relationship between women in labor and obstetric professionals. Fijałkowski’s ideas and advocacy were intimately connected with a humanization of the embryo and fetus from the earliest stages of pregnancy, and we show how his work became an important transmission medium for the gradual mainstreaming of anti-abortion ideas within public discourse in late-Communist Poland. 2026-01-12T11:48:35Z 2026-01-12T11:48:35Z 2023-04-17 journal article Ignaciuk, Agata, and Agnieszka Kościańska. "Regendering Childbirth: Catholicism, Medical Activism and Birth Preparation in Post-War Poland." Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences 78, no. 3 (2023): 249–69. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/jrad020. https://hdl.handle.net/10481/109555 https://doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/jrad020 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ open access Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional