Childbirth...Is It Even Worth It???

What do you think of when you hear about childbirth? Probably blood, pain, and maybe even epidurals. Between the 1600s to 1800s, only two of those words can closely describe childbirth, and if it isn't obvious enough, they were blood and pain. Women were encouraged to pop out as many babies as possible, even with the risk of death dangling over their heads. Women were expected to get married young in order to start reproducing children, and it was almost a game of how many children you could give birth to in such a short period of time.

With the upper class having more money, they were pushed into having more children. Women during the 1700s had servants that could care for their children while they recover, but this wasn't the case for the lower classes. In order for a lower class woman to have a child, she would have to work right up until she was giving birth, and immediately get back to work right after the birth to provide for her newly born child. Not only did the upper class have more of an advantage with recovery time, but they had access to medical advice, which could have a higher likelihood of the woman surviving after childbirth. Women during this time were more susceptible diseases following childbirth, and they were little to no cures to fix the infectious diseases. In the 1600s and 1700s, 1-1.5% of women died while giving birth.

It wasn't until the 18th century that doctors started getting involved in the delivery of child birth. Although this may seem like a positive for the women, it was just the opposite. Doctors were reusing the same tools from birth to birth on different women, and they were not washing their hands. This is when puerperal fever began to spread, and even was the cause of more than 40% of deaths in women during childbirth. Also during the 1700s, forceps were introduced and used by doctors, which seems like an easy-access tool in child birth...well, think again. If a baby was stuck in then birth canal, the doctor would use the forceps to try to wedge it out, but would often times break the mother's pubic bone, which would result in her death. If they wanted to spare the mother's life, they would use the forceps to break the baby's skull...morbid right?

By the 19th century, there were more drugs that could be used to lessen the pain of child birth, and keep from the mother dying. During this time, doctors came up with the "twilight method", which was a combination of morphine and scopolamine. Doctors are finally coming up with a way to make childbirth a little more bearable, awesome wouldn't you think? Yeah...not always. This combination of the "twilight method" was sometimes a fatal mix that could kill the mother. Between the 1600s and 1800s, childbirth seemed like such a hassle and honestly doesn't even seem worth it in the slightest. The risk of the pregnant mother, and even the child, dying during the birthing process doesn't seem like a chance I'd want to take. If it weren't for the women who took this chance during the 1600s through the 1800s, we probably wouldn't be here today...so thank you I guess, but I would never do the same.



Citations:

Cellania, Miss. "The Historical Horror of Childbirth." Mental Floss, 9 May 2013, mentalfloss.com/article/50513/historical-horror-childbirth. 

Helmuth, Laura. "The Disturbing, Shameful History of Childbirth Deaths." Slate, 10 Sept. 2013, slate.com/technology/2013/09/death-in-childbirth-doctors-increased-maternal-mortality-in-the-20th-century-are-midwives-better.html. 

Kennedy, Lesley. "The Checkered History of the Delivery Room." Fit Pregnancy, www.fitpregnancy.com/pregnancy/labor-delivery/checkered-history-delivery-room. Accessed 24 Feb. 2019.