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?

Type 1 Diabetes would’ve bumped me off for sure.

Quincy at 17 might of carted me off
Childbirth,broken elbow or an accident that you wouldn't believe could happen
I'm that clumsy-I broke my elbow by falling off a tiny stool and have been known to trip over fresh air

In order:

Measles aged 4 months.
Teeth, at various points.
Preeclampsia in my first pregnancy
Massive obstetric bleed in my second.
Tetanus (or another hefty infection of some sort) following a fairly nasty accident involving a broken manhole cover.

Just googled it. It’s Charlotte by the looks.

I think I'd have died at birth
If I hadn't I'd have been failure to thrive thanks to Mum's BFing problems so would probably have died of malnutrition or disease prevalent then.

If I'd made it to adulthood then DD's pregnancy and birth would have killed me without modern medical care

Yes, I believe they did

Meningitis aged 11 months as barely survived it in the 1960’s. Subsequently, older siblings leading me astray - possibly with intent!

If I had even survived birth, I had a hole in my heart and so was very poorly and operated on when newborn. The NHS saved my life. There would have been no hope in hell I’d have survived until my 30s if I’d been born in the Victorian era.

If I'd got through my own birth (umbilical strangulation), and not died of infected severe eczema as a toddler, or measles, mumps & chicken pox at the same time when 8yo, probably anaphylaxis, or being hit by an omnibus as I blindly crossed a busy road.

Eclamptic seizures after my first birth at 19. Or cancer now at 34. The NHS saved me last time and I hope it will again. I'm so happy I was born during a time when there are such treatments available.

My husband is a glutton who would eat and drink to massive excess if he could get away with it, and is from a rich family who could have afforded servants to serve him flagons of wine and whole suckling pigs etc on a whim. So he'd probably have been polished off by type 2 diabetes/gout/heart disease/liver failure or similar.

I would have died in childbirth.

I’d never have existed as my mum would have been dead after my eldest brother’s failed delivery and emergency c-section, as it was he nearly carked it and so did she.

Am feeling uncharacteristically lucky to be alive now, good shout starting this thread!

Gin poisoning preferably

Ulcerative Colitis, either causing malnutrition, perforated bowel, pernicious anaemia or from whatever awful treatment they would have tried to fix it. I think I read somewhere that it's what probably killed Prince Albert.

@largeprintagathachristie I remember at primary school the head teacher showing us a ledger / register of kids from our school in Victorian ish era. There was all sorts of things in there but one entry that sticks in my mind was saying a lad had been run over by a horse and cart outside the school and killed.

Definitely at my own birth or the birth of my son. We both have big heads so got stuck.

Of course I’ve been on antibiotics etc so who knows what could have happened without.

I was single footling breech back to back, so that would have done me! Since then, a bout of sepsis in early teens or pneumonia I reckon

Some terrible farm accident and/or over work on the farm.

Or sepsis aged 32 from an infected wisdom tooth.

Probably by my many bouts of tonsillitis.
I had a severe squint in both eyes, before my eyes were corrected I had a lot of double vision so I would probably have walked under a horse and cart or into a well or something.

I had a lot of seizures as a toddler and ended up on medication, one of those may have killed me.

If I survived that, childbirth. I have a flatter than average pelvis and dc1 had a giant head.

Whooping cough as a baby

Either Tonsilitis or childbirth. Or maybe that really nasty UTI I had

This is such an interesting thread. Makes me really grateful. My contributions are
tonsils removed at 18
broken collarbone
definitely childbirth , two emergency caesareans, one with underweight twins. They would have probably perished as well😞

Childbirth.

I was ill when I was 6 and had an intravenous drip but I don't know if I would have died without it, or just taken longer to get over it.

Teeth