Research project

MAMA: Maternal Age in the Middle Ages

Using a corpus of textual, literary, and other evidence to shed new light on the age at which medieval women gave birth.

Duration: 2025 - 2026
Funding: NWO Open Competition SSH-XS

It is often thought that the age at which women give birth (maternal age) is much higher now than it was in the past. Within the context of medieval Europe, both popular and academic sources claim that most women gave birth at a relatively young age. But a significant portion of women in medieval Europe gave birth in their 30s and 40s, and this raises questions about maternal age trends, and perceptions of maternal age, in medieval Europe.

MAMA explores these questions using a hybrid quantitative/qualitative approach. In particular, the project has gathered quantitative (age-based data) and more qualitative data (drawn from literary and other sources) concerning medieval maternal age in Northwestern Europe (with a focus on written sources and literature from The Netherlands, Belgium, France, and the UK).

Detail from a fifteenth-century embroidered tunicle depicting the Virgin Mary with Christ; Glasgow Museums, ID no. 29.2. Creative Commons License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

By analysing this data, MAMA aims to shed new light on literary representations of, and patterns in, medieval maternal age (including patterns across different social classes). In so doing, MAMA sheds light on a key chapter in the history of maternal age—a topic with contemporary health policy and sociocultural significance.

‘Medieval women had their first child much later than previously thought’

Project mentioned in interview with the PI in Leidraad (May 2026), p. 37.

“Maternal Age in Medieval England,” The Institute of Historical Research, October, 2025.

“Women’s Reproductive and Maternal Health,” Women’s History Network, Summar Seminar Series, June 2026.

(currently under peer review)