For the last two plus years I’ve been researching my family history via Ancestry.com and I have approximately 12,000 people in my “Tree”. Not all of these people are directly related to me. In putting together a family I included the in-laws (and what I jokingly refer to as outlaws) and the in-laws of the in-laws. The purpose is to build a broader foundation for a common ancestor. Another purpose is I have stories of cousins marrying cousins and without going broad and deep those connections would be missed.
There are many stories one can find throughout the generations and one of the stories one can see are the number of women who die in childbirth or shortly thereafter. Death certificates only go so far back so some of these observations are putting the puzzles together. Dates of Births (DOB) and Dates of Deaths (DOD) may be the only clues you have. Being born in a hospital is a fairly modern affair (as occurring in the 20th century with regularity). My father was (1928, Grady Hospital, Atlanta, Ga,) but my mother (to my knowledge) wasn’t. The stories I’ve observed have covered several centuries with the concentrations being in the 18th and 19th.
It’s not uncommon to see where a male ancestor (or in-law etc.) had multiple wives. At first your inclination (from today’s perspective) is to think; “what a snake!” But when you look at it closer you can see the 1st, 2nd and sometimes 3rd wives died on or in close proximity to the birth or birth and death of a child. The further back you go the more likely you’ll see it cross social economic lines.
There is a contrast, although from today’s perspective an incredulous one. I have observed some women who have given birth to 15 plus children (some into their late 40s and occasionally one will tip over into their fifties) and these women live well into their 90s. But they are the exceptions.
Childbirth today is different because of modern medicine, but modern medicine can’t remove the real risk that pregnancy and childbirth present to many women. All the legislation and all the religious and legal arguments can’t change the reality of nature. Abortion has provided these women with option.
I’ll leave you with this quote from the story where the above image came.
Knowledge is power, and ignorance is not bliss. Bliss would be men having to do this shit instead.