Would you still be alive if you lived in the 16th century?

[LittleMosIron]

I would have died aged 7 from appendicitis. If not then childbirth or an infected tooth would have finished me off in my early 20's.

This is true - Elizabeth I is known to have survived smallpox, for example.

The quinsy I had was unilateral so I suppose I would have had a better chance of survival than if I’d had traditional quinsy. The (21st) century doctors were very excited about it at the time, a lot of “never seen this in real life!” type comments. I was markedly less excited by the whole thing.

I think there are five things I'd have not survived without modern medicine: asthma as a baby, recurrent chest infections as a small child, anaphylaxis twice, ulcerative colitis in my twenties.

DD would have died last winter at the age of 6 without treatment for a nasty infection.

I am grateful to the NHS where whatever 'state' it is in I can always access the care I need in time (albeit with a bit of faffing and battling when it's hospital care) and we have a particularly fabulous GP. I think about a future with no NHS and I am truly worried that someone with the list of conditions we have won't be able to access insurance. I wouldn't insure me!

I’d have probably died walking off a cliff or something, seeing as I can’t see much of anything without glasses.

If I’d just sat at home I’d probably have survived.

I’m barely alive now in the 21st century! 😂

But no, I’d be dead. I drink and eat too much and there was no bp medication. I’ve severe MH issues so would probably have ended my life with no anti depressants.

Id have died in childbirth, or just after from infection or blood loss most likely. DS had cord round his neck twice and I’d lost all my amniotic fluid and hadn’t gone into labour. Assuming I went into labour at some point (I went to 42weeks without) he’d be dead and I’d probably get a womb infection.

I wouldn't have survived birth (7 weeks early).

Well no, given life expectancy was about 30 with nothing being wrong?
But I'd be dead from either tonsillitis when i was 8 or 9, or from impacted wisdom tooth in early 20's or from needing a vacuum extraction giving birth.

Oooh, I forgot about the HG - how could I have possibly forgotten about that?! I wouldn’t have even made it through the first trimester, never mind the birth. Unable to keep down any foods or fluids for months - I’d maybe have been classed as ‘too weak’ to bear a child and would have swiftly perished from dehydration.

Most unlikely, in sixteenth century England.

Definitely not alive. Broken thyroid at 12, then childbirth at 29. Fun game, this!

English witches were hanged, not burned.

That’s a statistical average, primarily caused by extraordinarily high infant mortality rates. If you lived past 5, you had a decent chance of living well past 30. Living until 70+ isn’t a modern phenomenon.

I’d have bled to death in childbirth. Probably would have made it till that point (age 33).

Childbirth with mu first dc would have finished me off. I was overdue, and needed induced at 41+6, my body was showing absolutely no signs whatsoever. Most likely it would have killed me/and/or baby, without an induction. If I survived it, the second one was transverse so that would have done it.

Thank god for modern medicine.

It's interesting that so many seem to think big/stuck babies would have killed them. I don't think that's true. Stillbirth and a fistula almost certainly, but not necessarily maternal death every time.

No, it wasn't.

Alive I think unless a dodgy tooth got infected before I could pull it out

I would have died from drowning at 3 years old. No lifeguards around in the 16th century I assume.

I may have died from asthma aged 3 - however, it was caused by our then pet cat and dog - maybe there weren't so many pets back then and the asthma wouldn't have been triggered? Who knows. I did have septic arthritis as well in the same year. That would probably not end well without surgery and anti biotics.

I don’t know if it’s rubbish, but I’m sure I’ve read that some men back in ye olden days actually liked short-sighted
women as they were less likely to roam or have their heads turned. I’d have a blooming long wait for laser surgery, so would also be sitting at home.

Theoretically, yes. I haven't, touch wood, suffered from anything yet that would have been fatal without medical intervention.

If you got to about 30 years old in the 16th century, chances are you'd get old (certainly not near today's standards but relatively so). The problem was, so many women did die in childbirth and infant mortality was so high, that the issues being flagged up in this thread are what killed off people, but in much higher numbers because we also have to remember we are not living with our livestock, have a proper sewage system, food storage, sanitation, oh and we don't have the plague. A quarter of children died before they turned 10.

I probably would have died during my birth (footling breech).

I would have died along with my mum during my birth so wouldn't have made it far 😂 if id miraculously survived then a bad hip condition would have paralysed me and if id made it through THAT, my DDs birth 😅

19 from meningitis. Great question OP x