Genealogy Chat

My great great Grandmother died aged only 34 in 1854. The cause of death is down as 'flooding'. Am I right in thinking this is a menstrual haemorrage?

Bit unlikely to die of menstruation though? Maybe she drowned! Or haemorrhage after childbirth maybe.
Are you 100% sure that's what it says?
Jan

Flooding

Uterine hæmorrhage. It occurs either in the puerperal state, or from disease. [Hoblyn1855]

An abnormal or excessive discharge of blood from the uterus. --Dunglison. [Webster1913]

The above from this website of old causes of death:-

http://www.antiquusmorbus.com/english/englishf.htm

Did she die just after childbirth?

Kath. x

My great grandmother died of flooding after childbirth in 1865

Brummiejan is right..

It definitely says cause of death 'flooding' . I thought she might have died after child birth but cannot trace a child born at the same time, alive or dead. Maybe she haemorraged after a miscarriage. Thank you for your help.

Death by postpartum haemorrhage would not have been rare at that time; even today it is not uncommon in less developed countries. The niece of a friend of mine died this way in Cameroon a few years ago.

As I understand it, a stillbirth would not have been registered as either a birth or death at that time, so that seems like maybe the most likely scenario.

"Flooding: Excessive bleeding from the uterus. Could be heavy menstruation or a complication of childbirth."

from http://web.archive.org/web/20040630062708/http://www.paul_smith.doctors.org.uk/ArchaicMedicalTerms.htm

Mark.

As you say it could have been a miscarriage. It could also have been an ectopic pregnancy - you start hæmorrhaging and the blood can rise up first causing complications before you even know it.

I have had one and even with modern technology it took them a few days to work out what the problem was. In those days I would think death was inevitable.

Persie

For sure, Persie -- I have a friend who lost a fallopian tube and ovary to an ectopic pregnancy. And they are virtually always fatal if untreated.

In that day, no one would even have had a clue there was a pregnancy involved, if that were the case -- it would indeed have seemed as if the pain and bleeding were just some fluke of menstruation.

Thing was I should not have had this happen to me. I had had a tubal ligation six years earlier. We went for medical misadventure and the system closed ranks. We had a letter originally stating I had an ectopic and then one very senior gynaecologist wrote to my doctor and said I didn't know what I was talking about (normally par for the course) and that I had just had a salpingectomy and there was no ectopic at all.

It was my father that said to me afterward that people died of this in his day. At the time when I was being diagnosed I couldn't have cared less whether I died or not I was so weak.

Persie

Thank you for your replies. Two members of my family suffered ectopic pregnancies; my daughter in law was very ill and lost a lot of blood. Coincidentally, my daughter suffered an ectopic pregnancy shortly afterwards but recognising the symptoms refused to leave the hospital until proper tests were carried out.
Women in the 1850s, especially if they were poorly nourished, might well have died from the effects.
Both the women in my family lost fallopian tubes. My poor Great Great Grandmother, it seems, lost her life to a haemorrhage and left three little girls who were pushed around the family and into factories to earn their keep.

she died after giving birth.x common in the 1800-1900s x