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 don't know
Ds1 and 2 would have been fine
Dd was born by crash section. It was for her sake though so she wouldn't be here but I don't know if I would have been.

I think I'd have been ok-I am Rhesus negative and dc1 is positive but dc2 is negative too.I had very straightforward deliveries both times

I am rhesus neg but DH is also rhesus neg.

Did anyone see that call the mW program where she delivered a breech and the lady barely was even panting!

thepathan after the first birth the manual extrAction was a walk in the park. Lots of staff in the theatre so guess it coud have been different but as it was it just seemed to be the surgeon ( I guess) fishing around taking a raggedy placenta out. They warned me they may not have got it all. Has some antibiotics I believe and pain relief meds I did not need. Wonder if it runs in families big sister had one too.

doctors wife

out of interest are pulmoary clots usually associated with CS/ELC or just having a baby generally? I have never heard of them before as a maternal killer!

After DC2 I had a womb infection, which could have been life-threatening pre-antibiotics (childbed fever, I guess). It was a v straightforward homebirth too, so not hospital-acquired.

Having said that, I am Rh -ve, so if I had developed antibodies after DC1 then DC2 would likely not have survived, as they were Rh+ too.

I have a condition which means I woudn't have made adulthood.

Childbirth would've killed both me and my dc.

Actually, it would've killed my Mum and my db, then me, then my db then my ds.

Oh just remembered my mum is Rh negative & I'm her second child so without the anti-D injection I would presumably have been very ill or died.

My aunt (also Rh-) had an unplanned pregnancy without having had the injections so that led to my cousin being induced to be born prematurely so she could be given blood transfusions, and was in an incubator. Scary to think I could have been in the same position.

Possibly with ds - I dilated fine and contracted and pushed wonderfully - but he simply didn't budge. A big baby not entering the birth canal despite body's best efforts- can't imagine how long I could have pushed for (the 1st 2 hrs sure didn't make a jot of difference to ds)

definitely with dd - trying for a vbac (though admittedly probably that wouldn't have happened 200 years ago, as if I'd survived I likely wouldn't have had a uterus) - same thing happened - only this time the uterus stretched paper-thin and we only just got dd out of there in time...

I think one or both of us would have died even 60 years ago as I had an epileptic seizure during labour and DS had stopped growing at about 35 weeks so was v tiny. Spent several weeks beating myself up about failing to feed him properly (he was formula fed) and having failed to deliver him properly (had emergency CS) until my grandpa pointed out that in his day we wouldn't have survived...
So glad I was born when I was!

Well if I hadn't died when my mum gave birth early due to pre eclampsia & if I had survived being a prem baby then the placenta praevia would have killed me & dd1 off! Dd2 would have died as I wasn't dilating & she was an EMCS

& yes I'm very glad I was born when I was!

Hyperemesis got Charlotte Bronte. I suspect my second and I would have gone that way.

I would have been fine, ds2 would have died about a week after birth from bronchioitis.

Both of us wouldn't have got past my preeclampsia at week 28, but a kidney infection 4 yrs previously would've done for me anyway.
And I was prem, so probably wouldn't have made it anyway.

Yes :( DD was breech all throughout pg and was eventually born via elcs - she had the cord wrapped 3x round her neck so tightly they had to cut it before they could deliver her. I have a bicornuate uterus. She would have been unable to descend into birth canal to be born. So scary, everything.

Yup. Galloping hyperemesis in 2 pregnancies would have seen me off.

I had postpartum heamorrhage and shoulder dystocia, so quite possibly both me and dd could have died. Home births are definitely inadvisable for me!

I had 2 wonderfully swift home births....but
If the retained piece of placenta after dc1 hadn't killed me (d&c at 9 wks postpartum) I may have killed myself during the horrendous hyperemesis with dc2, for which I was thankfully was treated and medicated.

Interesting thread, as my first thought was 'no' on account of the uncomplicated deliveries, but there's also the pre and post natal care to consider.

No, but DS may well have done (ventouse due to heart rate decelerations).

No, me and my 3 dcs would all be fine. They were all small and mw wanted me to go hospital after birth of ds but I didn't. We were fine.

Dd1 might not have survived without formula though as she never learnt to latch on.

i'd have died with the first and never gone on to have preemie dd, who would have killed us both.

Yes, during first birth, age 38.

Would I have died? No, since the hospital managed to ignore severe hyperemesis in my first pregnancy and I had to manage it myself. Labour interventions because of failure to progress intervention due to labour ward being busy/clock watching - hard to say but probably not - I think the hospital solved the problems they caused and there would have been no problem with being more patient. Second birth quick home birth - would have been exactly the same 200 years earlier.

Interestingly enough my grandmother had difficulties and was taken to hospital after being three days in labour. They were cleaning her up after giving the baby, (my mother) up for dead when she cried and subsequently grew up to be perfectly healthy. Granny, also suffering from severe hyperemesis, later went on to lose twins at 6-7 months pregnant - one I think would have been saved if born today, but I suspect that one wouldn't.

Quite possibly. DS big, was induced as labour didn't progress. The pain was unbelievable. I can believe it's possible I would have died if we'd been left like that.

However it's possible we might have managed!

However without modern medicine I'd very likely not have had a chance to have had a baby as I'd have been dead from a small dog bite I had which got horribly infected - or if I'd been lucky enough to receive medical treatment at the very least without an arm. Antibiotics saved my life (probably).