How did we survive the olden days?

[AnneLovesGilbert]

I watched a film last night, it wasn’t amazing but it got me thinking again about how so many people survived how awful life must have been so we’d end up here. A woman was giving birth on a muddy floor in a grim looking freezing cold castle. My mum wouldn’t have made it, so I wouldn’t be here and none of my younger siblings would exist. If I miraculously had I wouldn’t have survived several childhood illnesses, never mind appendicitis and the other things modern medicine has saved me from.

The film was about Mary queen of Scots so set in the mid 16th century and maternal and infant mortality was incredibly high but it wasn’t just that. Those women will have survived so many things to even get old enough to get pregnant. And how many men died in the endless sodding wars.

Baffles me.

@SmellyOldPartridgeinaPearTree Peasant women in China gave birth in the fields, put the baby in a sling and then went straight back to work!I don't even think it was that long ago, my great grandmother would have been in that predicament if she stayed in China and did not immigrate.

My mum only had a month of maternity leave, i think. A lot of women in america still go back to work straight after giving birth as maternity leave isn't a right there.

My DPs now deceased (not from cold) lived through the War. Their house had one fire lit all day every day, heated the water. We don't need to heat the whole house like now. They had a paraffin heater in the kitchen

I'm 34 and we lived in a house with one open fire only in the living room, until I was about 7. I remember the sprint from the bath to the living room, and ice on the (single glazed) windows.

My father rented the house from a farmer.

When me and my siblings were babies, it was terry nappies and no washing machine and no central heating. Just a fire in the living room. They had no car, no microwave, no phone etc

Blimey that was my life when I had my DD and I’m only 54, you can add no fridge to that list too. Couldn’t afford. Didn’t really think of it as tough though. Just normal.

My SIL trained as a midwife and in one of her lectures she learned that in the hands of a skilled midwife in the 1500s, a very straightforward birth was just as likely to produce a healthy baby as a normal delivery today. The basic midwifery skills have changed very little.

But in 1500 if something started going wrong with a birth there was very little the midwife could actually do to help. And that's why so many babies and mothers died during delivery or in the few days afterward.

We’re spoiled bastards aren’t we.

Some people still suffer terribly, how world hunger is still a thing baffles me- disgusts me actually. The divide between rich and poor is massive. So much wastage in developed countries and mostly all we do is flipping moan!

@Sunnysideup999

People died young of infection, disease, childbirth, industrial accidents. They had much less death from ‘modern day’ diseases like diabetes, heart disease, strokes. They were much tougher in some ways.

I wonder whether it was partly because they didn’t survive to an age when those types of diseases typically rear their heads? Most people aren’t diagnosed with heart disease or diabetes until middle age and strokes are more common among older people.

So if you’re dead before 50, you may avoid them.

We are spoilt bastards in many ways yes Although I wouldn't apply that to having a warm safe home, enough to eat, and access to healthcare, which should be a given for everyone but sadly is not.

The amount of people I've seen in the last two years complaining about how they can't go on their "necessary" holiday, however... Spoilt bastards indeed!

Most of the houses in the part of Ireland my parents are from didn't get electricity until the late 50s, so my dad spent most of his childhood in a house without electricity or plumbing.

When I was a kid I used to complain about the trek upstairs to the toilet and he used to laugh and tell me he didn't have an indoor toilet when he was a kid, they had to go outside. Nearly all my life I thought he had a normal toilet in a shed outside, it was only this summer that I asked him if they had plumbing, and he said no. The toilet was just a hole in the ground outside.

It's mad to think of the progress that was made in such a short space of time. But it's scary when you think about how our modern lifestyles are all dependent on access to cheap energy, and how finite the supply of energy is.

@peaceanddove

My SIL trained as a midwife and in one of her lectures she learned that in the hands of a skilled midwife in the 1500s, a very straightforward birth was just as likely to produce a healthy baby as a normal delivery today. The basic midwifery skills have changed very little.

But in 1500 if something started going wrong with a birth there was very little the midwife could actually do to help. And that's why so many babies and mothers died during delivery or in the few days afterward.

I think that's probably true. There is some evidence of midwives who knew how to do more complicated things (there's a case of a Jewish midwife who ended up being cross-examined, scholars think because she was trying to do something that would actually have helped a woman bleeding to death, but the onlookers were horrified). I think the major issue is that there's very little you can do with birth complications except external rotation, that doesn't rely on minimising infection risks. Infection must have been such a killer, it's terribly sad.

Britain was at its peak just prior to the First World War. And its success was largely due to financial and commercial innovations as much to as it was to Abraham Darby, Stephenson and Brunel. But it was also down to the fact that we drank tea. That way the water had to be boiled which meant people could exist in large numbers to form a "workforce" within a factory system without succumbing to desease as had been the case before and as in other countries.

@BoudecaBains

Sorry, what do you mean by this? Because the water was boiled (to drink tea) it killed germs? So we were healthier as a nation?

Not splitting feathers, it's just an interesting topic!

@Imtoooldforallthis

Not quite the same, but everytime my elderly mum complains about how cold her house is I ask her how my grandparents managed without central heating or double glazing, she never answers me.

She's lucky to have such a charming daughter to warm her heart and gladden her soul...

(She probably doesn't answer because she's biting her tongue to stop herself from telling you to fuck off).

All were home schooled through their first 8 years, then boarded in town for the last 4.
Now I read about all the "Poor mental health issues" because children and teenagers cannot get out to SEE their friends, even though they have f2f and Zoom and everything else. Parents complain that their children are not being educated when they have the internet and online classes. I don't understand

Because zoom etc is a very poor substitute for kids. Kids need to physically play together, run, chase, play ball, tig, hide and seek, skip, dance, climb. We are social animals.

Parents working and trying to educate, and keep an eye on LOs is impossible. Doing 3 things at the same time and trying to do them well just doesn't work.
3 months children didn't see friends, weren't allowed to play on swings, barely left the house.
Totally unnatural. Not knowing when it would end.

I'm sure those kids you speak off back in the day, probably attended church, so saw other kids at least once per week, probably also played with neighbouring farm children. The parents wouldn't have been under so much pressure to stop them falling behind either.

Generally I count my blessings for modern medicines, life and comforts. The last 2 years have been hard going at times.

But it totally blows my mind too think of the generations that have gone before me and the lifes they had. Going back centuries and longer!

@Babyfg I suffered terribly with this issue, as did my grandma and great grandma - and probably further back.
My great grandma was given this advice by her doctor - are you courting? Is he half decent? If yes, marry him and have a baby. Your issues will sort themselves out once you give birth.
My gran was given the same advice in 1930ish and I was told the same 10-15yrs ago. Amazed me how some things never change or advance (especially when it comes to womens health issues).

Anyone born in a first world country post WW2 is luckier and had a better, healthier life than probably 99% of all humans who have ever lived.