[Avodah] childbirth as a time of sakana [was: bat mitzva "bo bayom"]

[T613K at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/21/2008, yadmoshe at 012.net.il writes:

Igros  Moshe (Y.D. 2:74): Concerning inducing premature childbirth.

In my  humble opinion it is prohibited to induce premature childbirth 
because  childbirth in its natural time in the natural way is not 
considered a  danger at all.

>>>>>
Well, I have to assume that this means in the  normal course of events.  Also 
in modern times, maternal death is extremely  rare, so it's not considered a 
danger at all today -- having a baby today  is no more risky than driving a 
car, and maybe less so.  But in the  past many women did die in childbirth or 
shortly thereafter, and that was  /before/ they knew how to induce labor.  I 
remember a history or  English professor of mine who said that if you go to the 
old cemeteries in  England you will find a large number of graves of women who 
died in their  thirties, and then mostly the rest of the women in the cemetery 
died in their  seventies and eighties, like now.  The /average/ lifespan was 
shorter than  today but that is because of high infant death -- and high 
maternal  mortality.  If you got past the danger zone, you could live to be as old 
as  people do today.  (That was true for men, too -- once they got to middle  
age they typically lived as long as men do today.)


--Toby  Katz
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