Here are 40 Childbirth facts.
1-5 Childbirth Facts
1. The prototype of the chainsaw we are familiar with today in the timber industry was pioneered in the late 18th century by two Scottish doctors as a surgical tool to aid in the process of difficult childbirth. – Source
2. The Aztecs regarded childbirth as a form of battle. Women who died during childbirth were thought to rise to one of the highest heavens, the same one as for male warriors who died in battle. – Source
3. There is a legend that Athens’ first female physician dressed as a man to help women during childbirth. Male physicians accused her of seducing the women, leading to her appearing in court, where she revealed herself as a female and Athenian law was changed to allow female physicians. – Source
4. Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis dropped the mortality rate for childbirth from 12% to 2% after he insisted doctors wash their hands in between handling cadavers and delivering babies. – Source
5. Theodore Roosevelt watched his mother die of typhoid fever and then immediately had to go upstairs and see his wife die of complications from childbirth. – Source
6-10 Childbirth Facts
6. The ancient Greeks used the electrogenic properties of electric rays to numb the pain of childbirth and operations. – Source
7. A woman became paralyzed after her spine was injected with a powerful antiseptic instead of epidural during childbirth. – Source
8. After childbirth, you can literally kill your wife by going down on her. – Source
9. For nearly 50 years the Catholic church of Spain stole nearly 300000 newborn babies from families and sold them to Catholic families for adoption. Telling their bio parents the kids died shortly after childbirth. – Source
10. Some women have orgasms during childbirth. – Source
11-15 Childbirth Facts
11. Research has estimated that up to 95 percent of women can safely give birth without medical interventions. – Source
12. In 1965, around 8% of childbirths in the black community occurred out-of-wedlock; in 2010 that figure was around 41%. Today around 72% of African-American childbirths are out of wedlock. – Source
13. An Indian woman gave birth to her baby while using the toilet on a train that emptied directly onto the tracks. She passed out after giving birth, and after she reported what happened, rail workers found the baby alive and unharmed. – Source
14. Women need to strengthen their pelvic floor after childbirth or they risk urine leaks, flatulence, and even prolapse when they a cough, sneeze, laugh or strain themselves. Even after strengthening urine leaks are common even years after childbirth. – Source
15. In the US maternal death rate increased from 1990 to 2015. – Source
16-20 Childbirth Facts
16. Lotus births are the practice of leaving the umbilical cord uncut after childbirth so that the baby is left attached to the placenta until the cord naturally separates at the umbilicus, usually a few days after birth. – Source
17. British author W. Somerset Maugham was born because his mother was sick with tuberculosis and her doctor prescribed childbirth as treatment. – Source
18. A festival practiced in ancient Rome is thought to be the origins of Valentine’s Day where men would sacrifice goats and make whips from their skin while women would line up to receive lashes as a fertility ritual and to ease childbirth pains. – Source
19. MTV’s 16 and Pregnant led to a 5.7% drop in teen pregnancy in the 18 months after its premiere. – Source
20. African elephants chew specific tree leaves “apparently to induce birth. Kenyan women brew a tea from this tree to induce childbirth.” – Source
24 is incorrect. Heroin was first synthesized by C.R. Alder Wright in 1874 (the 19th century). It wasn’t until it was rediscovered at the turn of the 20th century that it was used medicinally.
# 23, What if you are born by C-section?