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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>From: Zev Sero <A
href="mailto:zev@sero.name">zev@sero.name</A><BR></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>>>Yes, childbirth was considered inherently dangerous, not because
of<BR>anything to do with the actual process of birth but simply as a fact
of<BR>nature, "min shmaya ka-radfu lah".... ISTM that<BR>the
reason this view developed was that childbed fever was such a
terrible<BR>killer, and its cause was completely unknown; women were dying for
no<BR>discernable reason, clearly unrelated to the actual trauma of
childbirth....</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>it's not the baby who's endangering her, it's the fact that<BR>she's at
this mysterious dangerous time, being judged by
BDShM....<<</FONT></DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent"
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>>>>>><BR>Childbed fever is a massive infection,
sepsis, and ironically this became a much more common cause of death
/after/ people started having babies in hospitals but /before/ they knew
that germs cause infection or how infection is spread. So this was in
relatively recent times -- maybe 18th or 19th centuries. Before that most
women gave birth at home with midwives and most of them did not contract
childbed fever.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>There was a famous doctor, Semmelweiss, in the 19th century, who claimed
that doctors themselves were spreading the disease from patient to patient, and
when he started insisting that all the doctors and nurses wash their hands
before examining patients, the infection rate and death rate went way way
down. (Unfortunately other doctors were outraged that he was, in effect,
accusing them of causing their own patients' deaths, and they ran him out of
town. IIRC he ended up dying in an insane asylum -- he went crazy
from agmas nefesh that so many women were dying when their deaths
could be so easily prevented. Too lazy to look up wiki but I think that's
the story.)</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>In any case, infection was not the only or even the most common cause of
maternal death before the 20th century -- you're wrong about that.
Childbirth itself *is* dangerous without modern medicine. Even in modern
times it is still somewhat dangerous -- my own neighbor lost his mother when he
was ten years old; she hemorrhaged at home two or three days after
giving birth. I remember a similar case in the Catskills a few years ago
where a woman home alone in a bungalow colony bled to death a few days after
childbirth. It can happen so quickly that there isn't enough time to get
help.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>There is also something called pre-eclampsia -- again, too lazy for wiki
-- but I think it's a sudden sharp rise in the mother's blood pressure during
pregnancy, and it's a medical emergency that can lead to maternal
death.</FONT></DIV>
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size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>It is also possible for a mother to tear in truly horrifying and
disgusting ways, and once in a while you hear about women in primitive places in
Africa or Asia, without access to modern surgery, who suffer the rest of their
lives because of unrepaired damage caused by childbirth. Stuff is hanging
out, they're in constant pain, hope that's not too graphic.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>Of course all kinds of health conditions can be brought on or exacerbated
by pregnancy, even before you get to childbirth -- from varicose veins to
diabetes to blood clots to liver problems, heart problems and
kidney problems. There's also such a thing as an ectopic pregnancy,
which is another life-threatening medical emergency. In olden days
it would have killed the mother and no one would have even known what
happened.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>Nowadays, maybe ironically, modern medicine itself can cause
problems. My sister has a friend who was left a paraplegic as the result
of an epidural. And C-sections can be life-saving for both mother and
baby, but they are performed WAY too often and cause their own set of
problems, including infections (generally treatable) and uterine
rupture (uncommon but it happens) in subsequent pregnancies, and lots of
other fun stuff. </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>So before the advent of modern medicine, childbirth /was/ intrinsically
dangerous and it wasn't just a "mysterious dangerous time, being judged by
BDShM." This is the reason given why the mitzva of peru u'revu is an
obligation for men but not for women -- people are not obligated to risk their
lives to do a mitzva. (Of course if they want to fulfill the
mitzva, men have to persuade women to cooperate, but that's another thread
-- see under "shiduchim." However, women are not obligated to marry or to
have children.)</FONT></DIV>
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size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>As for "being judged by BDShM, it is known that people are especially
judged at a time of danger. Not a "mysterious" danger but a known danger,
like crossing the sea or crossing the desert, or giving birth.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000
size=2>Today we live in a time when many dangers have been greatly ameliorated
by modern science (B'H) and of course that's why we don't bentsh gomel for
situations that did formerly call for that bracha. Some people think we
have lost some connection with HKB'H as a result -- we are less consciously
aware that ultimately, He is the one who brings us safely through travel,
hard times, or childbirth. The scientific knowledge and
the technology we enjoy is a gift from Him but He's still running
the world. We forget that even now we really do have to daven and not take
anything for granted. The rare unexpected tragedy reminds us, but then we
forget again.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF"
PTSIZE="10"><BR><B>--Toby
Katz<BR>=============<BR><BR></B><BR></FONT></DIV></FONT><BR><BR><BR><DIV><FONT style="color: black; font: normal 10pt ARIAL, SAN-SERIF;"><HR style="MARGIN-TOP: 10px">Looking for simple solutions to your real-life financial challenges? <A title="http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1209382257x1200540686/aol?redir=http://www.walletpop.com/?NCID=emlcntuswall00000001" href="http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1209382257x1200540686/aol?redir=http://www.walletpop.com/?NCID=emlcntuswall00000001" target="_blank">Check out WalletPop for the latest news and information, tips and calculators</A>.</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>