I’m Indigenous Canadian from northern Ontario and I was the first generation to be born in a modern hospital. Both my parents were born in the wilderness with traditional midwives. Dad was born in the cold of November and mom in the late winter of March … I can’t imagine what they had to go through for those births in the winter time let alone in the summer months. And in both their families their mothers had many children but many also died. Dad’s mother had 12 pregnancies but only 8 survived to adulthood … mom’s family had 10 and seven survived (an interesting side note in her family was that she had an uncle who died before the age of ten due to poisoning when he accidentally ate the wrong plant … and in her father’s family, they had 15 children! but only 6 survived).
Like the ancient Romans, my family who lived on the land survived without modern medicine just through shear volume and repetition than in any kind of modern knowledge, training or technology.
One of the biggest achievements of modern medicine was in saving infant mortality. Up until about 100 years ago (more like 120 years ago) it was a miracle to even be born. I think infant mortality back then was about 50%. The only way the human species survived and grew was just in the number of pregnancies a woman could have.
I’m Indigenous Canadian from northern Ontario and I was the first generation to be born in a modern hospital. Both my parents were born in the wilderness with traditional midwives. Dad was born in the cold of November and mom in the late winter of March … I can’t imagine what they had to go through for those births in the winter time let alone in the summer months. And in both their families their mothers had many children but many also died. Dad’s mother had 12 pregnancies but only 8 survived to adulthood … mom’s family had 10 and seven survived (an interesting side note in her family was that she had an uncle who died before the age of ten due to poisoning when he accidentally ate the wrong plant … and in her father’s family, they had 15 children! but only 6 survived).
Like the ancient Romans, my family who lived on the land survived without modern medicine just through shear volume and repetition than in any kind of modern knowledge, training or technology.
One of the biggest achievements of modern medicine was in saving infant mortality. Up until about 100 years ago (more like 120 years ago) it was a miracle to even be born. I think infant mortality back then was about 50%. The only way the human species survived and grew was just in the number of pregnancies a woman could have.