ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the dangers, with the understanding that women touched only a minority of births. Before 1800 perhaps 1 percent to 1.5 percent of all births ended in the mother's death. Switzerland was one of the few countries to exclude, from its maternal mortality statistics, deaths from infected abortions. In every parish and village where these midwives hold sway, there are women suffering from involuntary losses of urine, uterine prolapse, and lacerations. If traditional women encountered complications in birth, they would be in real trouble. Women with severe contractions posed nightmarish problems to their doctors and midwives. Eclampsia strikes women most often in their first pregnancy. Awareness of convulsions was apparently part of women's culture because folkloric remedies existed for it. Give the mother "melissa tea" or let her hold the "bloodstone" in her hand, said the peasants around Bamberg.
