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 just thinking the same thing. Without contraception and terminations, how many kids would we typically have?

Probably childbirth, I'd be pushing my luck having 3 kids.

Not all children died of whooping cough. My father had it as a young child.

Scarlet fever when I was 9. Had I got through that I (and my baby) would have died trying to deliver a footling breech prem baby age 32.

Pleurisy or hyperemesis, I imagine.

Or maybe Jack.

**Ishouldbeoutside

I had German measles twice as a child, measles and mumps. They weren’t life threatening.**

You're missing the point - in Victorian times they definitely were 🤨

Little bit of drama on this thread.

Lots of the conditions mentioned were perfectly treatable in Victorian times. Midwives were very skilled even then and would have turned back-to-back babies/unhooked umbilical cords etc. without modern technology.

Why were they more life threatening then? They’re not treated with antibiotics now as they’re viruses.

Whooping cough

Probably Child birth

This is a very sobering read. So many things we think of as pretty routine now that would have been a death sentence in years gone by.

For me neither myself nor my mother would have survived my birth ☹️

Childbirth, placental abruption.

chicken pox, mumps and rubella have always been for the vast vast majority of children mild childhood illnesses that require no treatment ( and this was also true 150 years ago especially with rubella which is often missed as the symptoms are frequently so mild) and the child gets better generally within a week yes occasionally there are complications and occasionally serious ones, this is still true, a few children do suffer badly from these illnesses but it is very rare. Before covid roughly 50 children a year in the UK died from winter flu ( they generally had other co-morbidities)
Most children did survive whooping cough, measles and scarlet fever, yes it did cause deaths in more children than today but it was still a relatively small percentage the majority of children even from poor households would have got better, the human body is exceptionally good at fighting infections. overall infant mortality before the age of 5 in 1890 was about 20%, half of that was in the first few days, so if you survived 28 days your chances of reaching age 5 were about 90%, as almost every child encounters at least one childhood infection it follows that most of them got better even in 1890, and accidents were a big cause of toddler deaths, so not all of the 10% that died between 28 days and 5 years would have been diease, it is still the case that the day you are born is the day you are most likely to die unless you live to be about 102

Like Covid some people have it so mildly they never knew they had it, but most people recovered with bed rest taking it easy and some painkillers, some have long term side effects long covid etc and sadly some died

Some sort of breathing problem as I’ve had asthma since I was 2. Not bad now

@Tiddler39

Basic hygiene knowledge was lacking seriously did you do no history in school 🙄

Post partum infection. Assuming I survived measles.

Yes, I get that, which is why cholera was one of the biggest killers (it even got Prince Albert).

But viruses like measles, mumps etc were no worse than they are now and would have been treated the same (my DS had mumps a few years ago and there was no treatment).

Do you mean that you would have been more likely to get measles etc then and therefore more likely to die of it?

Because the vast majority of children survived measles and mumps.

@Germolenequeen actually by 1850 the importance of hygenie was known about there were a lot of campaigns about clean water and "cleanliness is next to Godliness" while boiling water doesn't kill everything it still kills a lot of pathogens. antiseptics were also known about,

for most children these childhood infections were still mild diseases requiring no treatment but a bit of TLC and rest; the only difference was in the few that had serious complications there was often no treatments but for those that had rubella mildly it was of no greater consequence than today,

almost all Victorian child would have had encountered measles and many other infections as no vaccinations the fatality rate for all children from all causes between 28 days and 5 years was 10% ( accidents, hunger, infections, non accidental injuries) this means mathematically that at least 90-95% of children got and survived childhood illnesses

the basic point is that if you got a childhood illnesses as a victorian child the odds on you surviving that illness and any others you might catch were about 95+%

@Cottagecheeseisnotcheese

I'm not in the mood to argue - many people were illiterate so I doubt that they got the memo even if they had access to clean water 🙄

Don't @ me I'm bowing out now 😑

asthma

Ennui.

Bad burn as a child,

Pre-eclampsia when pg with DD.

My DHs great uncle died of complications from an ear infection in the early 20th century (pre-NHS) when he was a toddler. Unthinkable now.

Birth probably. My first child was breech and she would not turn. Ended in a C-section.