Problems of Social Hygiene, Public Health and History of MedicineProblems of Social Hygiene, Public Health and History of Medicine0869-866X2412-2106Joint-Stock Company Chicot146610.32687/0869-866X-2024-32-2-277-285НеопределенThe birthing chair, obstetric bed and gynecological chair in obstetrics and gynecology in Russia of XVIII-XX centuriesMitsyukNatalia Anmitsyuk@gmail.comPokusaevaVita Nvita.pokusaeva@yandex.ruThe Federal State Budget Educational Institution of Higher Education “The Smolensk State Medical University” of Minzdrav of Russia, 214019, Smolensk, Russia180420243222104202521042025Copyright © 2025,2025<p>The purpose of the study is to investigate material culture of obstetrics in New and Modern history of Russia. The most important objective of research is to involve into scientific circulation Russian empirical material in order to study transformation of culture of childbirth during transition from traditional to biomedical model of childbirth exemplified by material culture items (maternity beds, chairs, armchairs). The key approaches were those of historical anthropology, social history of medicine, theory of social control and medicalization. The methods of content analysis, narrative and interpretive analysis were applied to analyze empirical data. In the Russian folk tradition included no such special devices as maternity beds and birth chairs that was explained by dominance of vertical maternity pose. The first birth chairs were brought into Russia by foreign midwives. With development of clinical obstetrics horizontal position of woman in labor was approving that was conditioned by convenience of physicians. Since last quarter of the XIX century, Russian physicians began to experiment, inventing most convenient version of maternity beds and gynecological chairs. The Soviet system of obstetrics was mass and publicly accessible, but consolidated technocratic model of childbirth. In maternity wards, the Rakhmanov obstetric bed became widespread. The chairs were not used during childbirth, being used exclusively in gynecology. The material culture of Soviet maternity hospitals turned out to be extremely stable and conservative. In modern Russian obstetrics, with transition to holistic model of childbirth and actualization of free positioning of woman in labor, transformer beds and fitballs began to be applied to provide optimal course of birth process. The material culture of obstetrics is closely related to dominant type of maternity culture.</p>historychildbirthobstetricsgynecologymaternity cultureparenthoodmotherhoodmaternity and infancymaternity bedgynecological chairистория деторожденияистория акушерства и гинекологииродильная культурародительствоматеринствоохрана материнства и младенчествародильная кроватьгинекологическое кресло[Pushkareva N. L., Belova A. V., Mitsyuk N. A. The history of childbirth as the subject of social and humanitarian studies in Russia. Istorija mediciny = History of Medicine. 2019;(4):206–12 (in Russian).][Davis-Floyd R., Sargent C., eds. Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. California: University of California Press; 1997. 510 p.][Banks A. Birth Chairs, Midwives, and Medicine. Jackson, Mississippi: Press of Mississippi; 1999. 154 p.][Jowitt M. The Rise and Rise of the Obstetric Bed. Midwifery Matters. 2012;132:11–6.][Hopwood N., Flemming R. 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