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 would more than likely have died, taking DS with me as I had a pulmonary embolism during my pregnancy. It was pure luck that this was discovered otherwise id have died in 2010 never mind 200years before!!

So a quick survey of this thread would suggest a maternal death rate of about 80%.

Is that because this thread is attracting a disproportionate number of posts from people who had massively diificult births and pregnancies, or what? Because even the worst maternal mortality rates in the world, from war torn African countries where malnourished women are giving birth in remote areas with no access to any healthcare, are nowhere NEAR as bad as that.....

I suspect the question "would you have died in childbirth?" will tend to attract a response from people answering yes.

Why more so than people saying 'no'? I don't get it.

The evidence suggests that AT LEAST 9 out of 10 of us wouldn't have died.

This thread gives weight to the view that this board is the place to come if you want to catastrophise about childbirth.

I think also medicine creates the problems. For example - you have an increased risk of PPH with induction. So if you had an induction & a PPH, you might think you would have died 200 years ago. But 200 years ago you wouldn't have been induced, so...

Yup - eptopic.

No, I would have been fine. I also think that my prem baby would have been fine but don't know for sure. My sister would have been done for with any of her's (breech etc). I regularly think how grateful we should be to be pregnant and giving birth now rather than in the past. Our husbands and partners don't get asked "mother or baby", as we labour.

Even 50-80 years ago the maternal mortality rate was high, hence the superstitions about not bringing a pram into the house until the baby is safely delivered etc.

I would definitely have died too. DH and i have talked about this before. DD didn't fit through my pelvis. I had bandls ring thingy when they opened me up and my uterus kind of fell apart when cut resulting in almost catastrophic blood loss. Isn't medicine an amazingly wonderful thing!

But rilla, induction is done because there is a risk to mother and/or baby in the first place.

I would not be here. My mum nearly died in childbirth and needed a crash section with my brother, nearly 40 years ago.

As it happens I needed an ElCs for placenta previa. No symptons, only found on scan So even 40 years ago (no ultrasound scans then) I probably would have been a goner too.

Ladies, there's some very, very thoughtful posts and sobering stories on this site - as many have said, we are extraordinarily grateful to have the health services we have, in our country at this time.

While we're in reflective mood, can I please suggest you take a minute to look at this amazing, and very moving website?

www.fistulafoundation.org/

Thanks x

I don't think so. DD was back to back, but I pushed her out with intervention and DS was induced, but only by my waters being broken so a couple more days would probably have seen me go into labour naturally. The being said my mum was breeched at birth so she would have died and I wouldn't have even been born. Tis a sobering thought.

I'm not sure why women present breech (for example) are assuming they would have died 200 years ago, they may not have done, most of us would have had our dc whilst we were younger and much more physically active which may well have positioned babies better.

Overall though yes maternal mortality was high and we are very lucky to be labouring in these times!

DC1 I would probably have died as footling breech, if not I hate to think what kind of physical state I would have been in. However I wouldn't have got to the stage of having kids, as I and DH would have died in babyhood (DH) or childhood. Of course my mother might well have died in childhood without an operation during WWII, and I'm not sure how close my Grandmother came to death (which did kill her twin) in the early 20th century.

I am just lucky-there isn't much that comes easily to me but I get pregnant easily and have DCs very quickly and easily. It isn't anything that I do-pure luck.

No dying here thankfully, I haven't used anything in pregnancy/miscarriages/childbirth yet that wouldn't have been available in some form 200 years ago. Thankfully we haven't ever suffered from anything life threatening so all my family would be here, might have some slightly wonky limbs without proper bone setting but we'd all be alive. So far. Touch wood.

But rilla, induction is done because there is a risk to mother and/or baby in the first place.

Some of us would question that - it seems to be done because of a date on a calendar in many instances.

Undoubtedly a good number of people have got modern medicine to thank - those with pre-eclampsia, rhesus problems etc., but when it comes to inductions/accelerations, personally I am not sure. Having had one forceps delivery, I have always been convinced they saved me from the problems they created in the first place.

Those supposing a breech baby would have died are a bit pessimistic. Most breech babies are capable of normal delivery. The risks are a bit higher which is why they do CS usually these days but not as high as certain death to baby or mother. Also I think records show that most women who died of childbirth in the past did so due to infection afterwards because birth attendants didn't wash their hands rather than during the event itself. Babies died fairly frequently though and were removed on pieces to save the mother.

Oh and just to balance the thread a little I would have survived all 3 of my births and so would my babies. I don't think any of my female relatives past or present has ever had a CS either, including numerous cousins, aunties as well as my grandmothers, great grandmothers etc. To my knowledge only one great great aunt lost a baby shortly after birth and she lost twins which I assume were born prem. So I think the stats on this thread are a little skewed and should not alarm the newly pregnant too much!

Dragons woman - we've had no c/s in my family despite (out of the 4 mums and 12 children) 2 babies over 10 lbs and 4 over 9lbs, one morbidly obese and hypertensive mum (first baby at 38 second at 39), one with GD, one smoker. (births at 34,38 and 39), and one with type 1 diabetes. But don't know if we would manage that today as c/s rate has gone up a lot even in the last 10 years (most of our babies between 10 and 17 now)

I might have been better off as wouldn't have to wait 3hrs before they broke my waters because there was no theatre spare in case it went pear shaped, which it didn't.

dd2 would probably die due to failure to thrive, as might ds, although thankfully avoidance of cows milk even when I was bf means dd2 is small but fine and ds whose early diet was stricter is a healthy boy.

200 years ago... DD1 probably wouldn't be here (she was resusitated shortly after birth), I almost certainly wouldn't be here thanks to a ruputured ectopic when DD1 was 3 year old. And DD2... if I'd died from the ruptured ectopic instead of 'just' having emergency surgery to remove the offending tube, then she wouldn't be here either .

The decision to induce is made because of statistical risk. If you dig in your heels and refuse, a doctor may ask you to undergo frequent checkups, ultrasounds, non-stress tests etc., in order to assess your individual risk, but usually until all of this has been done what they go on is statistical risk.

I'd have survived both of my births, no problem. I probably would not have survived the scarlett fever I had when i was about 6 though....

I think that my main problem would have been that I would have had at least a dozen children and always have been pregnant or breast feeding or both all my childbearing years!