This is so important and, to me, so timely! The book I'm writing involves two women's deaths, one of which is pregnancy-related, and this is a reminder/reassurance that I'm doing the right thing by really investigating and explaining what actually caused both deaths.
Oh yes, I think we honor these women by explaining what happened. I think you and I may have discussed the kind of "flattening" that happens when we talk about historical women -- how so many queens, for instance, are reduced to a kind of a stereotype. (I think we discussed it?) I think the "dying in childbirth" phrase has its own flattening qualities.
Yes, we discussed the whole “women are heroes! and only that” trend in publishing from a bit ago that annoys us both. And now you’ve really got me thinking how “death in childbirth” is such a shorthand for the deaths of so many people in so many eras. I’ve been investigating the pregnancy death of Princess Charlotte in 1817 by talking with OB/GYN friends about it and, like Elisabeth, it could have been avoided with contemporary medical intervention/knowledge.
That's right - women are heroes, or they are eminently evil! Now you have gotten me thinking further about "death in childbirth" -- does it become a kind of linguistic coverup? As well as a kind of minimizing? And, in the past, was "death in childbirth" a way of excusing or explaining, in order to deflect blame, deaths that could have been avoided even then -- because it happened so often?
I have wondered for a long time how women dealt with the knowledge of the dangers of pregnancy and childbirth, how they coped with what must have been intense fear and anxiety at the whole process of making children and bringing them into the world. Does anyone know of a book that addresses this? It would still be a huge issue in very poor countries, and highly patriarchal countries like Afghanistan, which I believe has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world. We hear the numbers, but not what women do to cope.
This is a great question — do you mind if I post on Notes to see if anyone knows of any titles? The terrible reality is that, in the early modern period, many women who owned any property wrote their wills in the months preceding childbirth. As for coping, I’m guessing here, but during that period, a lot of support would have come from friends, female family, and any other female networks — and I imagine it would largely have been oral or, if written in letters, lost to time since so many women’s letters were destroyed over the years as not politically important. But I think we can’t undervalue the support that women gave each other that has not been documented in the archives. There would also have been differences among classes, I imagine. I have worked on royal and noble women, and although some of the letters I’ve seen do show the support that you are talking about (the ones that haven’t been lost), sometimes there can be a kind of reserved vibe around the language, both because of modesty, and because the stakes in childbearing were so political. Then again, women had other ways of showing support (oral message, gifts, sending medicines, waiting women, midwives, physicians to attend on female friends) that are more difficult to track.
When you talk about women with access to care during pregnancy- it triggered me thinking g about how we talk about it as “prenatal”- leading up to birth. That the discourse focuses on prenatal care for healthy babies- that THAT is the important “good outcome.” Not pregnancy care. Not care for the woman in her own right. Not that the most important “good outcome” is a healthy woman (even when that’s discussed, it’s “healthy mother”). Just a rambling thought…
Not rambling at all — that is an excellent, excellent point. Thank you so much for sharing it here. You’re absolutely right that the medical language itself tends to shift the focus away from the woman. And, however subtly, that language is also encouraging the *woman* to shift her own focus away from herself. She is encouraged to take care of herself for the sake of the healthy baby — which most women want to do. But she should also do it for herself, for her own body and health. A good doctor who is sensitive to these things makes all the difference in the world. Language is so tricky — this is why doctors’ bedside manner is so vital. But again, this comes down to resources, privilege, and often, to luck.
I've been reading through the Wikipedia pages of European noblewomen as my bedtime reading for the last few months, and even though I know how hard their childbearing years usually were, I've still been surprised and even repelled at how horrific some of their pregnancy and childbirth experiences were. It can be straight up gruesome in a way I frankly didn't know about, because I have the privilege today to choose to not be pregnant. Anyway, thanks for shedding light on this topic.
Hi Francesca, thanks so much for reading. I’m not sure I would characterize your choosing not to be pregnant as a privilege or as a human right — perhaps, in the long view of history it is both. You make such a good point about how the horrors of pregnancy and childbirth were forced upon these women because they didn’t have the choice to avoid them. And it seems all the more cruel when the ability to reproduce defines your value entirely (in the early modern royal mindset and economy).
This was brilliant, incredible, so perfectly written, but most of all, timely. Brava, my friend! I don’t have the time to comment as I wish to, so two quick things— I love (and hate) the feminist rage-aura you can feel in so many recently published pieces as we inch towards US Election Day. And secondly, a few times I thought “get out of my head!”, but most especially in footnote 2. Which you’ll understand why after the mention you’ll receive in next week’s post. 🤣💜 Thank you for writing this important piece.
I am intrigued! I'll eagerly await your post :) :) Thank you so much for reading and, as you always do, cheering me on. I'm also hating-loving the feminist rage, and am so so worried about where we are all headed. But I'm adding words to the fight in whatever historian-way I can -- as I know you are too.
Dear Leah, I really like this timely piece. I agree that this should become an op ed! You make so many important and relevant points with many thoughtful angles worth the readers considering. Thank you!
Thanks, Surekha. You know how when you hear or read something off, and it just kind of stays with you for a little while until you figure out why it bothers you so much? That's how I felt watching the abortion moment in the Vance -Walz debate. That conversation kept sliding away and not punching straight -- which, of course, was Vance's tactic. Anyhow, it bothered me so much that it was hard for me to pay attention to the rest of the debate. This post is my own way of re-centering that conversation.
This is so important and, to me, so timely! The book I'm writing involves two women's deaths, one of which is pregnancy-related, and this is a reminder/reassurance that I'm doing the right thing by really investigating and explaining what actually caused both deaths.
Oh yes, I think we honor these women by explaining what happened. I think you and I may have discussed the kind of "flattening" that happens when we talk about historical women -- how so many queens, for instance, are reduced to a kind of a stereotype. (I think we discussed it?) I think the "dying in childbirth" phrase has its own flattening qualities.
Yes, we discussed the whole “women are heroes! and only that” trend in publishing from a bit ago that annoys us both. And now you’ve really got me thinking how “death in childbirth” is such a shorthand for the deaths of so many people in so many eras. I’ve been investigating the pregnancy death of Princess Charlotte in 1817 by talking with OB/GYN friends about it and, like Elisabeth, it could have been avoided with contemporary medical intervention/knowledge.
That's right - women are heroes, or they are eminently evil! Now you have gotten me thinking further about "death in childbirth" -- does it become a kind of linguistic coverup? As well as a kind of minimizing? And, in the past, was "death in childbirth" a way of excusing or explaining, in order to deflect blame, deaths that could have been avoided even then -- because it happened so often?
And, ps: I'm so glad you're writing a book!
Thank you for highlighting how misunderstood women’s medical issues are.
Thank you for reading 🙏 🙏
I have wondered for a long time how women dealt with the knowledge of the dangers of pregnancy and childbirth, how they coped with what must have been intense fear and anxiety at the whole process of making children and bringing them into the world. Does anyone know of a book that addresses this? It would still be a huge issue in very poor countries, and highly patriarchal countries like Afghanistan, which I believe has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world. We hear the numbers, but not what women do to cope.
This is a great question — do you mind if I post on Notes to see if anyone knows of any titles? The terrible reality is that, in the early modern period, many women who owned any property wrote their wills in the months preceding childbirth. As for coping, I’m guessing here, but during that period, a lot of support would have come from friends, female family, and any other female networks — and I imagine it would largely have been oral or, if written in letters, lost to time since so many women’s letters were destroyed over the years as not politically important. But I think we can’t undervalue the support that women gave each other that has not been documented in the archives. There would also have been differences among classes, I imagine. I have worked on royal and noble women, and although some of the letters I’ve seen do show the support that you are talking about (the ones that haven’t been lost), sometimes there can be a kind of reserved vibe around the language, both because of modesty, and because the stakes in childbearing were so political. Then again, women had other ways of showing support (oral message, gifts, sending medicines, waiting women, midwives, physicians to attend on female friends) that are more difficult to track.
No i don’t mind, and thank you for your thoughtful answer
When you talk about women with access to care during pregnancy- it triggered me thinking g about how we talk about it as “prenatal”- leading up to birth. That the discourse focuses on prenatal care for healthy babies- that THAT is the important “good outcome.” Not pregnancy care. Not care for the woman in her own right. Not that the most important “good outcome” is a healthy woman (even when that’s discussed, it’s “healthy mother”). Just a rambling thought…
Not rambling at all — that is an excellent, excellent point. Thank you so much for sharing it here. You’re absolutely right that the medical language itself tends to shift the focus away from the woman. And, however subtly, that language is also encouraging the *woman* to shift her own focus away from herself. She is encouraged to take care of herself for the sake of the healthy baby — which most women want to do. But she should also do it for herself, for her own body and health. A good doctor who is sensitive to these things makes all the difference in the world. Language is so tricky — this is why doctors’ bedside manner is so vital. But again, this comes down to resources, privilege, and often, to luck.
I've been reading through the Wikipedia pages of European noblewomen as my bedtime reading for the last few months, and even though I know how hard their childbearing years usually were, I've still been surprised and even repelled at how horrific some of their pregnancy and childbirth experiences were. It can be straight up gruesome in a way I frankly didn't know about, because I have the privilege today to choose to not be pregnant. Anyway, thanks for shedding light on this topic.
Hi Francesca, thanks so much for reading. I’m not sure I would characterize your choosing not to be pregnant as a privilege or as a human right — perhaps, in the long view of history it is both. You make such a good point about how the horrors of pregnancy and childbirth were forced upon these women because they didn’t have the choice to avoid them. And it seems all the more cruel when the ability to reproduce defines your value entirely (in the early modern royal mindset and economy).
This was brilliant, incredible, so perfectly written, but most of all, timely. Brava, my friend! I don’t have the time to comment as I wish to, so two quick things— I love (and hate) the feminist rage-aura you can feel in so many recently published pieces as we inch towards US Election Day. And secondly, a few times I thought “get out of my head!”, but most especially in footnote 2. Which you’ll understand why after the mention you’ll receive in next week’s post. 🤣💜 Thank you for writing this important piece.
I am intrigued! I'll eagerly await your post :) :) Thank you so much for reading and, as you always do, cheering me on. I'm also hating-loving the feminist rage, and am so so worried about where we are all headed. But I'm adding words to the fight in whatever historian-way I can -- as I know you are too.
Well said and so timely! Your parallels between the 16th and 21st centuries are beautifully drawn, and spot on. 🩷
Dear Leah, I really like this timely piece. I agree that this should become an op ed! You make so many important and relevant points with many thoughtful angles worth the readers considering. Thank you!
Leah, a timely, pertinent and important article. Thanks for writing it.
And thank you for reading!
Utterly brilliant, compassionate, and vital. Someone invite Leah Redmond Chang to write an op ed every month!
Thanks, Surekha. You know how when you hear or read something off, and it just kind of stays with you for a little while until you figure out why it bothers you so much? That's how I felt watching the abortion moment in the Vance -Walz debate. That conversation kept sliding away and not punching straight -- which, of course, was Vance's tactic. Anyhow, it bothered me so much that it was hard for me to pay attention to the rest of the debate. This post is my own way of re-centering that conversation.
When something sticks with you is the moment to drop everything and write it down. I wish I could remember this more often!
Amazing article Leah, you are so brilliant!
Some women die from pregnancy. Some children have their limbs ripped off and are sucked from the womb with a vacuum.
That doesn’t happen to any children, only unwanted, unplanned, non-viable or potentially harmful foetuses.