Plural of confinement; instances or periods of being confined, restricted, or kept within limits; often used historically to refer to childbirth.
From confine plus -ment (a suffix creating nouns from verbs). Confinement historically referred specifically to the period a woman spent in bed during and after giving birth.
The medical term 'confinement' for pregnancy and childbirth reveals how women's bodies were once treated as needing to be literally confined and hidden away—a word choice that reflects medieval attitudes toward female reproduction.
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