When we were flowers

This famous image, often referred to as the ‘flower of life,’ shows how people in the 1600s thought of the unborn child. Very little was known about what went on inside the womb. The foetus was considered a fully developed human being who grew to the right size and was then born. Here, the foetus is also a flower. Botanical metaphors for pregnancy and reproduction were common at a time when the rhythms and routines of the agricultural year governed most people’s lives.