If you were a Victorian, what would you have died of?

[AhoyThereShipmates]

Reading a children’s book to my daughter that is partly set in a Victorian workhouse and it got me thinking.

I had a broken collarbone aged 9, and a pulmonary embolism, and then of course childbirth. If I was Victorian any of these might have killed me, but my money is on childbirth. DH reckons he would have been carted off to an asylum with unusual thoughts and would have just wasted away. Go on, indulge me.

If you were a Victorian, what would you have died of?

I was seriously burnt as a child so probably from an infection of the burns!

Probably wouldn't even have made my 1st birthday.

Childbirth I also had gallstones and think I'd have died from them eventually.

I would never have been born as both my parents had perforated appendixes as kids, and my father also had diphtheria.

Had I made it into the world somehow, I would have died either through toxoplasmosis at 9 (if that kills you) or Hodgkins Lymphoma at 20-odd. If those hadn't done the job, childbirth would have probably.

I'd most likely have died at or before birth (was born by emergency C-section).

I've also had an emergency C-section but not being able to have that would most likely have endangered my son, not me.

Zulu spear

Ectopic pregnancy, fallopian tube had ruptured, I had internal bleeding and I would have died without emergency surgery.

Natural decay. There's a cheery thought.

Hahah I second this! It

I'd have died at birth as I was extremely premature. DH would have died as child of a twisted bowel so my kids wouldn't be here.
Interesting thread.

Poverty.

Giving birth....

Epilepsy or appendicitis

probably my birth from the sound of things.

Most of us would have died either at birth or in their first five years of life.

My grandmother was the eldest of 8 children born in Victorian London. All but one of them survived to adulthood where they lived into their 89s and 90s. The one who died in childhood sadly drowned.

I'd like to hope that I inherited their strong genes, but it's more likely I wouldn't have made it past the bout of whooping cough I had when I was 4.

Possibly child birth- baby got a bit stuck. If I’d survived that then it would have been pleurisy- it almost hospitalised me despite 2 sorts of antibiotics simultaneously so I’d have been a goner in Victorian times.

Oh yes. I didn't think about ancestors. My maternal grandmother would have died of type 2 diabetes before any of her children were born. This woman was very healthy in shape and seemingly born and died on a bicycle and lived to be 95 years old. She took very good care of herself. So it was purely genetic. She talked a lot about the lack of understanding of the disease when she was a kid as it developed in her young teens. As she was born in the early 1930's. She was sick a lot so when she was young so when she started her insulin she felt like there was a lot of trial and error on her body that she had to figure out on her own. Very hit and miss for awhile. She took very good care of her body once she got a handle on the medication and diet.

Sorry I said early 1930's but meant to type late 1930's*

I might have died in childbirth with my first child. He would have died too.

My own birth, then an appendicitis, failing that probably a massive opium addiction. Victorian times seem boring for ‘ladies’.

Childbirth. Twice.

My own birth.
Salmonella poisoning at 6.
Tooth infection in 20s.
Childbirth 20s.
Ear infection.
Another tooth infection.

Tbh, I think I'd take my own birth over the rest. The rest would be very painful deaths.

I was a premature baby in the 70’s, I wouldn’t have survived in the Victorian times. If by a miracle I did, I would have died from a partial molar pregnancy and if I survived that I would definitely have bled to death in childbirth with my child dying too.
Its very sobering 😬

Childbirth first time around

Definitely quinsy. I had it three times, aged from 19 to 25 then they took my tonsils out thank god. If I'd survived that I think I would have died in childbirth with my twins; they were largish and both breech. Thank the lord for elcs.