Help requested with old cause of death

[Vulcaneer]

Hope someone can help me with this..........

 

I have a death certificate from April 1889 for a lady who died of "Puerperium Exhaustion". I understand that the puerperium is the term used for the weeks following a birth but could anyone explain what we might know this cause of death as in today's terms.

 

Vulcaneer

[histreal]

Hi

This was the general term used when the women died after giving birth.

[medusa]

I would imagine that it was a latin term for dying in or directly after childbirth after a very hard labour.

 

In days of poorer nutrition, the pelvis of many women never grew large enough to let a baby through properly, and the rate of maternal death during labour (which could go on for days) or directly afterwards was shockingly high.

 

The level of blood loss during a tough labour was even worse for a woman who had poor nutritional levels and was therefore likely to be anaemic anyway.

 

There are lots of recorded cases of women simply dying either because their bodies couldn't cope with the level of energy required to actually go through days of labour or from the dehydration of blood loss and not being allowed to eat or drink during the labour.

 

This was compounded by the normal approach which was to 'confine' the woman to bed for a period of weeks after the birth, which we now know was a key contributing factor to the unexplained death of many women following birth. Thromboses caused by the immobility weren't known about at the time.

[CarolW]

On the genuki site, there's a list of medical conditions which are found on death certificates.

 

"Puerperium Exhaustion" is simply described as "Death due to Childbirth" - but doesn't give a specific cause

The other one listed is Puerperal Fever" - septic poisoning associated with childbirth

[Vulcaneer]

Thanks for both your replies.

 

I think the lady in question, Elizabeth must have had another child after the last one I know about who was born in 1888, she died in April 1889. She was probably better nourished than most as she was married to a wealthy iron founder and lived in what was then called Dore New Road. What miserable times to have to endure.

 

Vulcaneer

[medusa]

If she died in childbirth then it was very likely that the child died with her. More often than not that's what happened.