200 years ago would you have died during pregnancy/childbirth?

[LynetteScavo]

I had a kidney infection when pregnant with DC1, then a long and difficult birth, with a happy ending after a ventouse delivery. I've sometimes wondered if I would have lived through the kidney infection if I hadn't had IV antibiotics. I have no idea how the birth would have panned out.

I suspect an awful lot of us wouldn't be here now if we had babies 200 years ago.

I think me and mine (4 dc) would have all been okay - although I was induced for being overdue and with one the meconium was grade 3 so who knows perhaps one of more would have been stillbirth as I still didn't go into labour at 17 days over...

I was also aneamic during my pregnancies so who knows what would have happened.

I think we forget that even 70 years ago it was probably "normal" that each mother lost at least one child if not more between conception and the age of 2 it's only the advances that have changed that.

Oh and I haemorrhaged after the csection could literally feel it pumping out of me despite the epidural, the anaesthetist went white when I told her that and hissed at one of the surgeons that I could feel it. Then someone came tearing into the room and stopped it. I couldn't see any of it but ex H that everyone was in silent uproar obviously trying not to scare me. He thought I was a goner. Ds didn't cry for ages either. Dear me I am quite tearful reliving that.

Yes

With dd1 I never dilated past 2cms, despite being in labour for over 24 hrs. Dd started to get distressed so had an emcs.

Had an X-ray at six week check which showed a very strange angled pelvis. I would never be able to give birth naturally. It makes me very grateful for modern medicine.

Had an elective cs with dd2 which was very relaxed and lovely.

Not sure if ds & I would've made it (huge baby stuck, eventual ventouse delivery). Lots of stitches so might easily have succumbed to infection anyway.

If I did get through that, dds would've been fine.

Bad news for my dbro though - mum's Rh- & I'm Rh+.

I would probably have died in labour,; both emcs, my cervix also does not dilate . I bled alot with dd too and had to have a lot of my insides tidied up for 90 mins after.

All irrelevant as I was born at 33 weeks 40 years ago, my mum would have died of eclamsia and taken me with her. Or I wouldn't have survived as too small without the incubator.

Except she would have died of pulmonary embolism 5 years before.

I am very grateful for modern medicine.

DD1 would possibly not have made it as she produced a lot of meconium while I was in labour, but she was relatively small so I think I would have survived.

DS would have been the end of both of us. He was large and late and I'm not sure if he would have made it out without being induced and then the ventouse delivery. If we had got through it I think I would have ended up with a fistula.

DD2 (assuming I got through with DS) would have been fine and so would I (trouble free pregnancy obstetrically speaking, she was late but arrived very fast when things started). However, I had strep throat twice while pregnant and that might not have worked out too well for either one of us.

DD3 - late and large again; she would probably have been ok -- as it was, they all failed to confirm a knot in her cord that was spotted by an early ultrasound but proved impossible to catch a glimpse of later. Nothing was done about it as it couldn't be confirmed, and she arrived with a neat knot but no other complications. Luckily it wasn't too tight. But it was just luck.

DD4 I had gestational diabetes and anemia but delivery was straightforward after induction no forceps or ventouse even though she was nearly as big as DS.

My great grandmother died in childbirth along with her second baby, my gran's sibling. There are worse things than delivering in a nice clean hospital hooked up to monitors.

Alot if us would have died in childbirth now in this day and age if we happened to live in countless countries where there is no modern medicine and to top it all our dcs would have a high chance of perishing before they reach 5 years old. It's not just in the olden days!!!

Want to add my gran delivered eight babies at home in Ireland, during the 1930s to the 1940s, never lost one and none of them had problems. My other granny delivered eleven between 1905 and the 1920s, twins the first time around, in the Northwest Frontier and in Ireland, with only one born in a lying in hospital in Ireland (because they were moving house). No losses and no problems..

I had high blood pressure from 32 weeks and was induced at 38 weeks when everything started to go haywire with pre eclampsia, so probably either Ds or i, or both of us would have died.

I think so, ds 1 got stuck and was delivered with forceps after a failed ventous, would have been ok with ds2, but guess it would have been too late by then!!

Difficult to say. DD1 wouldn't have ever come out - completely wedged in, trying to get out forehead first. I had tried every different position, hip circles on the ball, walking around, hand and knees etc., and she just wouldn't turn. I had always thought that we would both have died, but I read a book about Georgian women and found out that the doctor in those days would have waited until the baby died and then taken it out in pieces. :( So there would have been a chance that I could have survived assuming that I didn't get a dreadful infection from that horrific procedure. :(

I would have died from dehydration caused by hyperemesis probably with DD1, but if I had survived that pregnancy then one of my other two pregnancies would have finished me off. And there was the ectopic after DD2, which was so advanced that I lost an ovary as well as a tube.

I think it was probably touch and go even in this day and age! Both twins delivered vaginally breech at 33 weeks needing SCBU for 3 weeks and then I had extremely high blood pressure which required medication.

Nah, would have been dead long before getting pregnant :o - type 1 diabetic aged 9, life expectancy from diagnosis ~1 year tops.

Other than that, DD was big but I might have survived that, DS is a surviving triplet, he survived thanks to laser ablation to treat acute twin to twin transfusion syndrome. Lost the other two and he was touch and go, born at 31 weeks.

Also I have GBS so I imagine that would have complicated things too.

I was reading today about fistula in girls in Niger I think it was. They can often be married much younger than the law allows and at 14 be ni labour for 2 days (no hospitals around). baby dies trying to get out, girl has incontinence etc problems thereafter and is not wanted by the family unless she is lucky enough to get surgery (I am not sure if they are subjected to FMG which presumably would make the problem even more likely to occur).

What about me? I needed a drip to speed up contractions with 2 of the 5. Without that who knows? Birth is certainly dangerous and I wish people did not celebrate pregnancies, have US baby showers etc. It is a hope not an expectation, a risk not a consumer order.

I wouldn't be here. Looooooong labour, ago lure to progress, baby in wonkiest position ever. EMCS.

Quite likely my Mum would never have made it through my birth due to PPH.

I would have died long before even thinking of kids due to torsioned fallopian tube which was on the point of rupture when they whipped it out.

Needed ABs after DDs arrival due to infection in 3rd degree tear - who knows how that might of gone.

I'd be dead for sure.

Dd1. Back to back, brow presentation and sucking her thumb. After 36 hours she got into trouble and alarms were sounding in my room as everyone hurriedly got me down to theatre. As she finished stitching me up from my emcs the consultant came round the screen saying 'just in case you were feeling a failure, this baby was never ever coming out, she was lying in there sucking her fingers trying to come face first'.

Dd2, that was a breeze pregnancy. A great elcs. A dream. Then for three days in hospital i couldnt breathe, couldnt lie down etc so they treated me for trapped wind with peppermint tea. I went home on day 5 and just about collapsed at the top of the stairs. Rushed back in and i have pulmonary embolisms, multiple clots in both lungs. Its the biggest maternal killer apparently and i was told no way could i go home as i'd probably die. Now i'm on warfarin until sept etc but still have crushing chest pain. So nevermind 200yrs i was nearly dead four months ago.

Both girls were worth it though.

I've had 2 uncomplicated homebirths, so might have been fine. However, it's unlikely I'd have got to adulthood due to childhood illness/infections, and my first pg was a nasty ectopic that would have definitely doen away with me - so no me, no DDs .

Amazing anyone survived really. We are so lucky.

I presume I would have had problems with DS - high blood pressure from 34 weeks with pre eclampsia diagnosed at 38 weeks. DS decided to be born before the induction happened but slow heart beat led to forceps and then I had a 1500ml PPH which might not have been great for my survival 200 years ago.

DDs birth was fine but not much use if I'd died with DS.

On a separate point when did glasses become usual. I am really short sighted and imagine with no glasses my life would have been very different.

Yes, I have a medical condition that means I would definitely have died in childbirth. In fact when MIL was in hospital she met an older lady who had no children because she had my condition and was told that it was too risky (2 months after I had DS!). It is astonishing to think that even 30-40 years ago I would have died in childbirth.

I suspect I would have died two weeks after dd1's birth when I contracted a infection. I have never felt so ill and it took two lots of abs to shift it. If I had survived that post partum bleeding with dd3 would probably have finished me.

I had a persistent molar pregnancy in 2003 (before having 3 dcs) which required a year of chemotherapy. the consultant in charge of my care told me that even 30 years ago, I would have died.

Yes, Pre eclampsia

I think I probably would have done better, to be honest, as they wouldn't have induced me for being overdue, and that lead to a whole load of other stuff. Can't know there wouldn't have been a problem if I'd left it.

If I had survived the first one the second one was no problem (homebirth, midwife didn't do much more than catch him).