Historically were women petrified of being pregnant due to childbirth?

[Buttercupsandpoppys]

As the title says. Mortality rates weren’t great with so many women dying during labour.

I know there was so much pressure to have children as a women. In period dramas and books/films you see women desperate to ‘provide sons’. But if they knew death was so likely, wouldn’t they be petrified at the very thought of pregnancy?

im suprised history isn’t full of women just point blank refusing sex/marriage and all having to be publicly dragged kicking and screaming knowing pregnancy was practically a flipping of the coin between life and death.

I honestly think I’d have tried any and every trick in the book to avoid it. Even making myself as unattractive as possible so no kind would wish to marry me!

Anyone have any knowledge of this?

1994!!

1992 was the Law Lords ruling that basically nullified the spousal exception in the existing legal definition of rape by declaring it incompatible with later legislation giving women equal rights to men. 1994 was when the then-govt codified that ruling into legislation.

My original birthplan said C-Section before any attemps of forecepts or any other instrumental help.

DD was breech until week 36 and I made plans for C-section because I didn't want a breech birth. She turned but when I was in labour she also decided to turn back-to-front. Luckily I had an amazing midwife but I am sure that with the one I had before I would have ended with an emergency C-section.

I don't have another one but I think the experience is part of that. I would definitely have gone for an elective C-section if I would have been pregnant again

I’m pretty sure that data says than in 1751 it was around 1000 deaths per 100,000 - that’s one in 100, not 1 in 1000. That feels more plausible.

Many women wouldn’t have been informed enough to understand the risks. I remember hearing someone talk on the radio about how their grandmother was pregnant and didn’t know how the baby would come out,

I often think it's astonishing that so many women actually got married and risked their health and their lives to have a family, but then I remember that most women had to marry for financial reasons unless they were lucky enough to be born rich and have no brothers, pursuing a career was out of the question. Even when they were financially independent single women were regarded as quite pitiful, unwed, unwanted, childless and pretty much useless. Anyone remember 'Its a wonderful life,' without George Bailey Mary was a <gasp> spinster! And that was relatively recent.

My grandma was the same. She had to ask her older sister how the baby was coming out. She thought it was from her belly button. It just wasn't talked about.

I always think about the post birth injuries. I mean, who knew about kegel exercises back then? The number of women who must have had prolapses or incontinence or tears etc and been just left to live like it and, even worse, have more children on top?

Social history needs to be taught in schools!

People have such a warped view of the lives of ordinary people in centuries past.

The Victorian age was so significant that lots of people assume life then was life in the centuries preceding it.

I'd much rather have lived in the 18th century than the 19th!

A significant minority of women have always remained unmarried. There were maiden aunts, war widows, nuns, missionaries, governesses, prostitutes, slaves, lesbians, domestic servant's & 'unmarriagable' women eg disabled women.

Childbirth can be more dangerous now because women have bigger babies, at older ages, when they have existing ill health, obesity, babies with men outwith their 'village' so can have disproportions in hip/head size.

The first birth is the most dangerous. After than maternal mortality decreases significantly.

In the past the mother's life was worry more than the baby's so brutal measures were taken to save the woman at the expense of the baby.

Maternal mortality peaked when men got involved in births and didn't wash their hands between patients.

This is what killed Mary Wollstonecraft.

But ordinary women gave birth in what were actually safer conditions.

Women didn't have huge families until formula milk use became commonplace. This allowed much more frequent pregnancies. Prior to this babies were breastfed for 2-4 years which acted as a contraceptive meaning longer gaps between children. It was also not uncommon to not get married until late 20s/30s.

Women weren't all so ignorant in the past either. We've had daily newspapers for over 300 years. Women shared knowledge and knew how to use various types of birth control eg abortifacient herbs, sponges, withdrawal, cycle timing, douches, condoms have been around for centuries!

Centuries ago, it was common to have paintings made of wealthy women when pregnant because the risk of death in childbirth was so high. The famous painting, ' The Arnolfini Marriage', wasn't celebrating their marriage at all, but, as this female art historian cleverly deduced, it was a posthumous painting of the wife, as she actually died in childbirth.

vimeo.com/236264058

I remember seeing a documentary, in which a woman was interviewed about giving birth between the wars in the UK and what she said was that she had no idea how the baby would be born until she went into labour and went to hospital. There was a suggestion that this wasn't uncommon.

I don't think so, it was because women were expected to get married and have children so their education would be a waste of money.

My grandma who was born in 1910 was still bitter in her 80s about the fact her brother became an engineer but her parents refused to pay for her to do teacher training.

parents wouldn't keep you in their homes having to feed you much past 15.
you could work in certain service industries as a single woman which provided accommodation (including religious service/nursing/teaching which included room and board).
often death was not due to delivery but infection following.
difficulty in delivery was less of an issue when women married men of similar bone structure.

@Gingerkittykat My Grandma was born in 1906, she was interested in a career and her father signed her up/paid for her apprenticeship.

Her mother, however, disapproved and thought it was a waste of time! She wasn’t happy at all when Grandma moved to London and had a career in the fashion industry.

It shows how women were indoctrinated to think that they shouldn’t be educated.

I hope your grandma had a great career in fashion!

My grandma was born in 1885. She had one son (my Dad) and when her husband died in the 1920’s (my Dad was born in 1922), she took over the running of his garage!

Thank you for your insights. How interesting!

I didn’t know that about surgeons and hospital increasing risks so much.

I know marital rape was a common thing. But I was wondering if women did everything and anything to avoid pregnancy so they were pretty much always raped when having sex as they didn’t want to risk pregnancy. Or always trying every old wife’s tail to avoid pregnancy/induce miscarriages.

Do you mean the baby was born back to back? Back to the front is the more straightforward way.

According to experts from Cambridge University 1 in 20 women died in childbirth in the 1500s. My Nan’s mum died in childbirth in the late 1930s. She had a stroke giving birth to her 14th (!!!) child.

There is a great 1920s novel called South Riding which covers some of this. Also the Scottish classic novel Sunset Song. Both very moving. Women were often terrified and had little choice.

As an aside, I saw a programme a while back about a prehistoric mother recovered from a bog by archaeologists. She had died while giving birth to triplets. As at least one triplet is usually breech it would have been very hard to deliver triplets in those days. It was a very sad programme.

Childbirth is still barbaric today, with the exception of modern science providing the option of ELCS. I‘m shocked not more women aren‘t terrified of the potential injuries or trauma. Most have been brainwashed into believing they need a natural birth (a belief engineered by men, driven by politics & misogny, actually designed to save resources for the medical system at the expense of female suffering) so they go into it hoping the bad things simply won‘t happen to them. Or they were never aware of the risks in first place and rarely speak of it afterwards.

Statistically 33% of births end in emergency csection and 42% of births involve some degree of injury. Those are whopping numbers. If I ride a bike and someone told me I had a 33% or 42% chance of getting hit by a truck today, I would definitely stay home! 62% of women end up with pelvic floor issues later in life. Imagine willingly accepting you may be disfigured or injured for life. It‘s better than dying but historically people may still see it as bonkers.

As a PP mentioned death from all types of causes was far more likely then. Wounds would often turn to sepsis because we didn't have antibiotics etc, deaths from tooth infections were common, Broken bones could be fatal. Heart attacks, strokes, cancers and all the things we get treatment for these days still happened but not treatments were possible. LIfe in general was just much more precarious and scary.

Great question OP. I’m sure the answer varied based on the individual woman and the time, location and society she lived in. All of these things would vary so much!

Such a shame more of women’s history is not known! Daily lives of women and how the related to marriage, relationships, work, family etc is far more interesting to me than learning about this war and that war.

I was wondering if women did everything and anything to avoid pregnancy so they were pretty much always raped when having sex as they didn’t want to risk pregnancy

Historically I think women were extremely uninformed about sex, contraception and pregnancy. It would have been shameful to discuss these things in detail and there would have been old wives tales around how to avoid pregnancy, how to have a good pregnancy / birth etc. Apparently my great aunt was devastated when she found out she was pregnant with her 10th child. She must have been absolutely clueless about contraception.

This was the case for my GGM. Born 1902. She asked her mother how the baby was going to get out and her mother refused to discuss it. It came as a real shock when the time came.