'This book explores where and how infertility featured in mid-twentieth-century pronatalist thought and action. In combining histories of medicine, women and gender, as well as public administration, this study will be of interest to specialists in these areas. It pursues the usually neglected question of how far these actors paid attention to the fact that not all French men and women were childless voluntarily.'
Joan Tumblety, European History Quarterly, Vol. 56, No. 1.

'Fertile expectations is a superb achievement and will become a staple of reading lists on modern French family policy for decades to come.'
Richard Bates, American Historical Review

'Fertile Expectations is an engaging read...Her expansive source base allows her to tell a detailed history of involuntary infertility, a topic that is usually relegated to private life…a well-researched and innovative book.'
Miranda Sachs, French History

Introduction
1: Influencing Population trends: motherhood and demographic thinking
2: Infertility in a pronatalist age: medical research and advice in the interwar period
3: Recovering Births for France: Infertility as a Pronatalist Issue
4: Adoption law reform: building families and promoting population growth
5: Gender, Nation, and the Family in the Post-War Era: Artificial Insemination in Question
6: Population growth with family planning? Demographic policy in the baby boom era
Epilogue and conclusion