Ottoman Pronatalism in Printed Sources in Late Nineteenth Century

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Ottoman pronatalism and issues related to midwifery, pregnancy, and abortion increasingly made their appearance in to Ottoman publishing. Books and journal and newspaper articles advocating directly and indirectly pronatalist ideals gained prominence as the Ottoman print culture developed and started to target popular audience beside the elites. The normative literature played an important function to popularize pronatalist ideals as well as medical knowledge. In this article, I will handle a largely ignored topic and present some examples to the ways issues related to midwifery, abortion and pregnancy made their appearance into Ottoman printed media. Through those examples, I will try to identify some of the main characteristics of nineteenth century pronatalism. The examination of pronatalist debates in printed sources will contribute to the analysis of Ottoman media and counter politics by adding a gendered aspect to it.