The Wandering Womb and Other Myths: A History of Beliefs About Women’s Reproductive Health

Throughout history, the womb has carried far more than unborn children - it has borne the weight of myth, misunderstanding, and moral anxiety.

For much of human history, reproductive health was interpreted through a mixture of folklore, religion, and proto-science, shaping not only medical theory but also how societies viewed women themselves.

The “Wandering Womb” of Antiquity

One of the most enduring early theories was the “wandering womb.” In ancient Egypt and Greece, physicians and philosophers believed that the uterus was not fixed in place, but could roam freely through the body.

If it strayed upward, it might press on the lungs and cause shortness of breath; if downward, it could lead to paralysis or hysteria.

Treatments ranged from fumigating the vagina with sweet-smelling herbs (to lure the womb back) to applying foul odours at the mouth or nose (to repel it downward). This belief reinforced the idea of the female body as inherently unstable and in need of male or medical control.

Maternal Impressions: The Power of Women’s Thoughts

By the Renaissance, another powerful myth gained prominence: maternal impressions. It was widely believed that a pregnant woman’s experiences, fears, or even passing thoughts could imprint themselves physically on her child.

A startled woman who saw a hare might give birth to a child with a cleft lip (“harelip”); a craving for strawberries might mark a child’s skin. The theory was invoked to explain birth defects and congenital differences in an era when genetics was unknown.

In effect, it placed the burden of a child’s health almost entirely on the mother’s imagination and morality, and added to the idea of mental instability.

Humors, Hysteria, and the Womb as Cause of Madness

In Hippocratic and Galenic medicine, women’s health was closely tied to theories of the four humors (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile). Menstruation was thought to purge women of excess humors, making it a necessary release.

Suppressed menstruation, or “retained seed,” was believed to cause illness. This framework shaped centuries of thinking about fertility and disease.

By the 19th century, the womb was again pathologised through the diagnosis of hysteria (from the Greek hystera, meaning womb). Physicians attributed women’s psychological disturbances, nervous fits, or “unruly” behaviour to disorders of the uterus. Treatments ranged from rest cures and enforced passivity to pelvic massage (which, ironically, led to the invention of the vibrator).

The Womb as Vessel of Morality and Nationhood

Religious and social traditions also linked the womb to morality and political order. In medieval and early modern Europe, women who suffered miscarriages or gave birth to stillborn children were sometimes suspected of sin or witchcraft.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, as modern nation-states consolidated, women’s reproductive health was tied to anxieties about population and race. Mothers were seen as guardians of future citizens, and medical advice often blended with moral instruction, emphasising chastity, moderation, and obedience.

Persistence of Myths into the Modern Era

Though scientific advances in embryology and obstetrics gradually dismantled older theories, their echoes persist. Beliefs that stress, emotions, or “bad thoughts” can harm an unborn child still circulate today.

Popular advice given to pregnant women - avoid anger, avoid fear, avoid sadness - reflects a cultural lineage that extends back to maternal impressions. Even modern controversies around reproductive rights and maternal responsibility carry the residue of centuries-old anxieties about the mysterious power of the womb.

The Burden of Symbolism

The history of beliefs about the womb reveals less about biology than about cultural attitudes toward women. Theories like the wandering womb and maternal impressions functioned as explanations in the absence of scientific knowledge, but they also reinforced ideas of women as physically and emotionally unstable, needing regulation by men, doctors, or society.

Today, as medicine continues to demystify reproduction, we can look back and see how myths about the womb were as much about controlling women, as about understanding their bodies. The question is: how much residual damage continues to subliminally linger in our modern-day attitudes from these centuries-old beliefs?