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Causation
Long-Term: Women gave birth to many children, which often could lead to the deaths of the mothers.
”Infections and fever due to lack of sterilization and uncontrollable bleeding caused many deaths.” (Hupp).
Since there was a lack of medicine or pain relief during the 19th century, many women suffered and even died. The deaths and pain was greatly feared by women at the time, since many women just had home births, with no type of care.
Short-Term: Many hospitals weren’t the cleanest, and very busy so they didn’t have a lot of room for mothers.
”The members regularly met to discuss how to ameliorate the living and housing conditions of the population in order to influence the health situation and to prevent diseases.” And “The availability of civil hospital beds was 0.14 per 1000 inhabitants.” (Historical Hospitals)
Martha noticed these things and made her hospital different. She took very intensive care and accepted everyone she could. They even offered extra things like adoption services.
This image shows what tools were used by midwives to help during childbirth. They were kept in a leather bag. There were different kinds of hooks, and even a bone cutter. Some were delivery tools, some were destructive. This image supports my question by showing a part of what labor was like for mothers in the 19th century. This image is important because it helps me understand what tools were used and how women were assisted during childbirth.
Obstetrical Instrument Set, England, 1851-1900, 19 October 2014, Wikimedia
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