Genealogy Chat

Hi there, I have found another relative on this site and we are now sharing our research, she has recently ordered a death certificate for our Great Gran who died hours after giving birth to my Granddad. Her certificate says 'Heart disease and another word that relates possibly to fainting, and there is another word which we can't decipher? Would this usually be the given reason or are we to assume that she had a weak heart which couldn't cope. My Dad died at a young age of a heart attack so it just got me thinking. What was usually the cause of people dying of childbirth? Further Message added: 19/02/2006 HI all, Thank you all for your wealth of knowledge, it seems as though there would have been quite a battle over time to change people's views, it really does paint a picture of our ancestors, I often think about what our past relatives would have thought about the standards today and how fortunate we are, when I did some research on the internet aswell, it also occured to me that third world countries are STILL in this situation, maybe with our help, possibly in years to come things could change that much for them too. Bev

A possible cause is Puerperal fever - which is a common child birth death Regards jane

Thanks Jane, I thought that most women would have died of an infection or something. Bev

Hi Bev I found the meaning of puerperal fever on a website ages ago giving discriptions of old ailments and it said - 'infection entered through injures to the birth canal leading to septicaemia. Occurs within 3 weeks of childbirth' sounds pretty horrible! Regards Jane

Syncope is a word often used for loss of consiousness, or fainting. Kath. x

It does sound nasty, it doesn't surprise me though. Just think that if it had been in this day and age then she would have survived, just comes to show how much we take for granted. Bev

Last year one of my cousins had a baby and began haemorrhaging afterwards which could not be controlled. This was life threatening and she had to have an immediate full hysterectomy hours after giving birth to save her. Now if you can imagine that happening about one hundred years ago, I don't think she would have stood a chance. As it was she made a good recovery but obviously is unable to have any more children. Brenda

Childbirth deaths were usually from infection or bleeding. The upper-class diet recommended for pregnant women was iron-poor and and bloodletting was still reasonably popular, though in steady decline by the Victorian era. Poor people were unlikely to be killed by the good intentions of a doctor but their diets were abysmal too. Nobody would have washed their hands. Sanitation was so poor in cities that having a tummy bug or permanent breathing difficulties was normal, so women were already weakened.

Hi all, thanks for your advice, crikey, I am surprised that we were a growing population or that people had any children at all, let alone the families that you see who had eleven or more. It must have been absolutely terrifying and to also have to bring a child up in those conditions. My Great Grandfather registered her death, the day after and she was buried on her Birthday. He would have been griefing and also had to look after the children on his own. Really sad. xx

And those cramped, horrid cold conditions with no heating, water, double glazing. xx

Found this.. Child bed fever ...Infection in the mother, following birth of a child Marion

Childbirth for our ancestors was tricky - its tricky now, but we do have pain relief (even if it doesn't work!!) and a lot more knowledge about problems. We understand the need for hygiene and sterility and have monitors to check mother and baby during childbirth, caesarian operations are much less dangerous now than they were. But haemorrhage after childbirth was uncontrollable then - my gt gt grandmother bled to death at the age of 38. And in the recentish past 1950 My poor mother-in-law had an agonising first labour - her obstetrician, who had thought she might need a caesarian, was on holiday when she went into labour. She was treated by a chap who nowadays would have been at least the subject of an inquiry, if not struck off. He allowed her to labour for hours, tried to remove the baby with forceps - it was actually lying sideways, not head or feet down - and caused a lot of internal damage which had to be put right in a subsequent operation. Finally he did an emergency caesarian. The baby lived for 2 minutes, though she was told her baby was born dead. The surgeon, still wearing his blood-stained gown, told my f-i-l that the baby was dead and his wife had a 50% chance of survival. He walked straight out of the hospital in front of a bus, which fortunately braked in time. They were told they couldn't have another baby for 5 years. When she had this one, they gave her a general anaesthetic to do the caesarian, and she stopped breathing and needed heart massage too. This was my husband's birth. 5 years after that she had another son. I knew some, but not all, of this when I had my first baby. I shall never forget the look of relief on their faces when they visited me in hospital, nor my normally undemonstrative f-i-l hugging me tight and saying 'As long as you're all right!' nell

Bev sorry, I hijacked your thread but I needed to get that off my chest! Regarding your original query - my mother told me that her father's mother had died in childbirth. She actually died nearly a year after the baby's birth - of heart disease. Of course 'heart disease' is a blanket term, covering who knows what specific conditions. But certainly being pregnant, and having a baby - or 8 or 9 babies, would place a strain on the whole body system, including the heart. nell

Nell, what a shocking story, that is so sad, can you imagine how painful that would have been and so emotional, it could have been prevented now. I think if I was alive in Victorian times, I think I would have been too traumatised to ever let anyone near me to even ger pregnant if you know what I mean.

Hi Nell, that's ok, I think this website is a good place to share things like that with like minded people so I am glad you shared it, makes you think. On the certificate it says 'heart disease, then there is another word which says '.......ion' and then 'syscope' She was only 24 and we think that my Grandfather was the second child. Sometimes on records, you can see that people have had four or six children by that age. I am glad that I was born in this generation but it's sad to think how people suffered.

Another cause would be eclampsia or toxaemia of pregnancy...... I'm sure most of us have heard of pre-eclampsia? I had it with my first baby and had to be induced......Will NOT forget my m-i-l's face when she was told this (I was not very bothered by it at the time).... It was only after she had died that we found out she had full-blown eclampsia with her first child (my hubby's brother), the baby died after 8 hours and she never saw him because she was in a coma for some time after the labour. All this was kept a secret from us - we only knew there was anything to look for because some years before, my hubby's gran had let slip something about her daughter being in a coma in hospital not long after she was married...... Also, my gynecologist told me the most dangerous pregnancies are the first one and the tenth one..........Biggest risk after a lot of pregnancies is rupture of the uterus which would have been fatal to our Victorian rellies..... My paternal granny died of an infection in her 70's but her doctor said her body was ''worn out'' after 14 pregnancies..... Merry

Hello Monty! Again very tragic, I can imagine how your m-i-law must have felt. That's awful. x

Having survived labour a couple of times (never again, thank you!) - I would imagine that if you had any underlying condition, the strain of pregnancy and labour might be enough for you to die from the unrelated condition .....hubby just reminded me of his ancestor who died from ''exhaustion from phthisis and childbirth''. She was only in her early 20's.....if she had been healthy, I doubt she would have died of exhaustion unless the baby was to big to be born, which clearly was not the case, as the child survived. If I had lived then, I would have been a spinster virgin - one of those ''lady companions'', I think!! LOL Merry

I don't have children but I guess I have all of that to look forward to, my Mum says that you forget the pain once the child is in your arms and she had twins. Bless. I think if I went through any of that then I would have had just the one, I don't think there would have been any other business going on to produce another! Lol xx

I believe some women also died due to miscarriages. If the baby remained in the body this could apparently lead to blood poisoning. I had a miscarriage a number of years ago and didn't know until 3 weeks later. When I found out, I didn't want any medical interevention I ideally wanted my body to just decide to get on with it. However, my doctor told me this wasn't possible as it had already been a long time and if I refused to be induced then it could lead to blood poisioning. It was during this conversation that she told me that women use to die of blood poisioning after such occurrences before medical intervention was available. I wonder what this would be down as on a death certificate?