tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8386077972421065740.post2933094756361599679..comments2024-03-26T13:39:44.619-04:00Comments on Historical Hussies: Guest Elizabeth Chadwick: Medieval Pregnancy and ChildbirthDonna Hatchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05807169149057139718noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8386077972421065740.post-21601851364536660682011-09-20T16:50:49.181-04:002011-09-20T16:50:49.181-04:00I just wanted to thank Linda and Elizabeth. This s...I just wanted to thank Linda and Elizabeth. This sounds like a wonderful read!catsladyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06375770995988927860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8386077972421065740.post-3602171102765575342011-09-20T16:01:45.953-04:002011-09-20T16:01:45.953-04:00Sorry not to have returned and droppped in, but I&...Sorry not to have returned and droppped in, but I'm on 'on the ground' book tour in the UK at the moment.<br />I just want to say thank you for all your fascinating and lovely replies, and to say to Monya that I haven't read The Crown and the Covenant, although I have read some of Evan Hunter's novels - wasn't he a prolific thriller writer too - Ed McBain?<br />I knew about fistulas - horrific. <br />I've read several articles. I wouldn't be surprised if Margaret Beaufort ended up compromised like that after the birth of Henry VII. I didn't know that about Jane Seymour, although I did know she died after giving birth.Elizabeth Chadwickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16911841862257909703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8386077972421065740.post-62376135631710971082011-09-17T11:25:37.605-04:002011-09-17T11:25:37.605-04:00Pregnancy and childbirth were such scary ordeals b...Pregnancy and childbirth were such scary ordeals back then! Every bit as risky as war. I'm so glad I'm a mother nowadays instead of a few hundred years ago (or even a few decades ago, really). But they might have had one thing right back then - letting the mothers rest for 40 days. Nowadays you're expected to pop out of childbed and zip around as soon as you push the kid out, as if your body didn't just get ripped apart! My grandmother, who had 11 kids, said that back when she was of childbearing age, women stayed in the hospital for weeks afterward. She said she looked forward to those times as vacations from the responisibilities of caring for her home and many kids. lol I woudln't want to be in the hospital for that long, but it sure would be nice to have people helping out at home for a couple weeks!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01025900107236429624noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8386077972421065740.post-49522996332082855672011-09-17T08:17:14.045-04:002011-09-17T08:17:14.045-04:00Thanks for the fascinating info, Elizabeth. Have y...Thanks for the fascinating info, Elizabeth. Have you ever read Evan Hunter's 1950s book "The Cry And The Covenant"? It's a real eye opener. Women had been dying of childbed fever, i.e. post-natal infections, forever and it was considered one of the normal risks of birthing. The book is the story of Ignaz Semmelweis, the Hungarian doctor who in the 1840s first broached the idea that to prevent it was simple. The doctor needed only to wash his hands. He was laughed at and hounded into resignation and insanity. Yet his discovery paved the way for the discovery of bacteria and the steps taken by Lord Lister and Louis Pasteur to eradicate them from medical and general situations.<br /><br />And I was reading today about fistula in the developing world, when a mother in a primitive society has no access to a necessary caesarian. The birth tears her bladder and she loses control over her urine, is declared unclean and cast out of her home. While this issue begins to be addressed in various parts of the modern world, it must have been a similar situation for medieval women.<br /><br />And Caesarians: Julius Caesar's mother survived hers, which must have been pretty rare. But Henry VIII's third wife Jane Seymour didn't. She was pretty well butchered so that her son, later Edward VI, could enter the world, and barely survived his christening. After all, Henry's marital adventures were simply a search for a male heir. He had no way of knowing his daughter Elizabeth would be one of the great monarchs of history.<br /><br />This is already a long post and I hope not boring, but there's another fact which added to female post-birth fatalities. Midwives delivered children until about the end of the 18th century, when male doctors began to take over the job. And they had their patients lie down, for their own convenience, which is when serious complications began to be noted. They hadn't heard of the law of gravity; female midwives had always required the mother to sit on a birthing chair. In the 1960s I read an article about a doctor who researched the odd fact that so many babies were born in taxis on the way to hospital. Mum was sitting, of course. And that led to a return to the old ways of women giving birth in an upright position. <br /><br />I gave birth to my own four between 1960 and 1970, and there was a big change in method during that time. Thank goodness.<br /><br />End of lecture!Monya Claytonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10457892085239476067noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8386077972421065740.post-89644373881166437342011-09-17T01:37:33.113-04:002011-09-17T01:37:33.113-04:00I think all womankind is grateful for modern perin...I think all womankind is grateful for modern perinatal care. Your article revives that gratitude. <br /><br />I also appreciate the research you have done on your characters lives. It must have taken quite some digging; there can't be much available on them. I'm sure your novels have brought them back to life, and I would love to read them.Debra Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03256313302199653185noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8386077972421065740.post-18261134932352416642011-09-16T21:44:44.642-04:002011-09-16T21:44:44.642-04:00What interesting facts. I am glad my children wer...What interesting facts. I am glad my children weren't born during that period as they were both breech and they nor I would have made it. Progress is a wonderful thing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8386077972421065740.post-90755820660520341312011-09-16T17:14:46.251-04:002011-09-16T17:14:46.251-04:00fascinating Elizabeth- thanks for writing this pos...fascinating Elizabeth- thanks for writing this post! I couldn't help but think of my experiences giving birth, and how grateful I am that they all took place in the 21st century!Kara Kinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07273055857935231984noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8386077972421065740.post-73524778031256919122011-09-16T12:36:24.481-04:002011-09-16T12:36:24.481-04:00All very fascinating. I'm pretty sure my grand...All very fascinating. I'm pretty sure my grandmother on my mother's side used the vinegar on something method because she came from a very large family herself and after her mother died in childbirth and her father remaried she ended up caring for quite a few children. She had only 3. My other grandmother had problems too and was able to have only one child. And my husband's mother had 7 miscarriages, my husband, and an ectopic pregnancy that almost killed her. And really that wasn't that long ago!<br /><br />I probably wouldn't have survived my first pregnancy having complications but my second was totally natural - quite a difference lol.<br /><br />Historicals are always my first book of choice with medievals being my favorite. And when they're based on fact, I find it even more intriguing. I appreciate all the research that goes into it!catsladyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06375770995988927860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8386077972421065740.post-14896468982900465072011-09-16T11:49:47.208-04:002011-09-16T11:49:47.208-04:00Wow...pretty scary to have been a woman during tho...Wow...pretty scary to have been a woman during those years! Lady of the English sounds like a fascinating book. The birth control method of the "weasel" was just amazingly silly...lol...Thanks for the giveaway.Maria D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/05747214324745625853noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8386077972421065740.post-61715924234037075012011-09-16T11:36:23.954-04:002011-09-16T11:36:23.954-04:00I love reading about medical history. It is very i...I love reading about medical history. It is very interesting and makes me glad I live now.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12019450793013285292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8386077972421065740.post-56450059385886806172011-09-16T11:06:29.649-04:002011-09-16T11:06:29.649-04:00Excellent post! I miscarried my first child and go...Excellent post! I miscarried my first child and got pregnant again almost immediately. It was the 80's and doctors encouraged natural child birth. Fool that I am, I went along with it. OMG! But then my BP spiked. If not for modern drugs, I would have had a seizure and died. I got a little demerol then, but combined with the spiking BP, it just made me puke between contractions. I'm also RH neg. My husband is RH pos. And because I miscarried the first time, my daughter was considered my second birth. Which put my child at risk if her RH factor was positive. So, I had to have a RhoGam injection during pregnancy and after delivery because my daughter was RH pos. Had I given birth prior to the early 1970's my daughter might not have survived. I can't imagine giving birth in the dark ages!<br />God bless modern medicine!Lilly Gaylehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12085355337721818824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8386077972421065740.post-26927243450587660352011-09-16T10:42:56.903-04:002011-09-16T10:42:56.903-04:00I agree, Linda! Medieval women had to be a tough l...I agree, Linda! Medieval women had to be a tough lot!<br /><br />Thanks to you and Elizabeth for some fascinating insights.Lindsay Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11513558547686982857noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8386077972421065740.post-58005115904345108672011-09-16T08:52:57.806-04:002011-09-16T08:52:57.806-04:00After all that, it's amazing any women have su...After all that, it's amazing any women have survived to this day!Linda Banchehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18143074276306710646noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8386077972421065740.post-19293853049358171742011-09-16T08:36:04.547-04:002011-09-16T08:36:04.547-04:00Wow! The various ways birth was brought on, is fa...Wow! The various ways birth was brought on, is fascinating.<br />Thanks for this info. I've never seen it at any other source.<br />Cherylcherrychnaganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03044653283235302196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8386077972421065740.post-68848367018853714602011-09-16T08:21:34.173-04:002011-09-16T08:21:34.173-04:00Fascinating details, Elizabeth! I've recently ...Fascinating details, Elizabeth! I've recently started reading Lady of the English and I'm thoroughly enjoying it.Cathie Dunnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08537946350336674340noreply@blogger.com