History Main / DeathByChildBirth

[[folder:Anime]]
* A very interesting version of this occurs in ''{{Berserk}}''; [[spoiler: Guts is born to a woman that already died]].

* [[spoiler: Tsubasa Shibahime]]'s mother in KareKano. It becomes kind of a plot point when [[spoiler: her father gets married again and, since Tsubasa had been a DaddysGirl from birth, [[ParentWitNewParamour it takes her a while to accept her new mother figure]]. (Who also was the nurse who took care of her after an accident.)]]

* [[spoiler: Tsubasa Shibahime]]'s mother in KareKano.

* For many species of plants and insects, death by childbirth is considered natural. Some animals and a vast majority of plants subscribe to the so-called "Semelparous"[[hottip:*:the word derives from Semele, the mother of Dionysus, who was incinerated in the birthing process]] strategy of reproduction, devoting all of its resources to one massive cycle of reproduction, which would so drain the mother that it would quickly die of starvation afterwards (this is opposed to the iteroparous strategy, where the mother would life to reproduce another day. The mother (and/or father) may be ''designed'' to die after reproduction, either to provide their own body as food for the young or so as not to take up the children's food.

* Henry VIII's third wife Jane Seymour, when portrayed onscreen. In reality, although technically it was the birth that killed her, she didn't actually die until almost two weeks later and was well enough to attend the Christening. However, most cinematic and televisual adaptations have her die giving birth because it's more dramatic than the historical truth.

* Notable women who died in childbirth include: the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, Queen Jane Seymour, Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt (wife of Teddy), Julia (Julius Caesar's daughter), Princess Charlotte, Mumtaz Mahal (the Taj Mahal was built in her honour), and American writer and feminist Jean Webster. And while she wasn't apparently blamed for it, Mary Wollstonecraft's daughter, also named Mary, arguably had issues...seeing as she grew up to become Mary Shelley and write {{Frankenstein}}, and according to a story, she wanted to, uh, [[UnusualEuphemism get to know]] Percy Bysshe Shelley (her future husband) better when they met... over her mother's grave.

* Míriel in Tolkien's ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' dies of weariness after giving birth to her son Fëanor, saying "[never] again shall I bear child; for strength that would have nourished the life of many has gone forth into Fëanor." (Indeed.)

* The beginning of ''[[TheFly The Fly II]]'' involving Veronica 'Ronnie' Quaife.

* In Creator/DanAbnett's Literature/GauntsGhosts novels, this is how Gaunt's mother died (and half of why he was an orphan, necessary for being a commissiar.)

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' this is what happens to the PC's mother at the very start of the game.

* [[spoiler: IllGirl Nagisa]] in ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'' After Story, in one of the biggest {{Tear Jerker}}s of the series ([[TearJerker/{{Clannad}} And that's saying something!]]). [[spoiler: Luckily for her, [[RetCon she recovered]].]]

* Kano's mother in ''VisualNovel/{{AIR}}''.
* [[spoiler: IllGirl Nagisa]] in ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'' After Story, in one of the biggest {{Tear Jerker}}s of the series ([[TearJerker/{{Clannad}} And that's saying something!]]). [[spoiler: Luckily for her, [[RetCon she recovered]].]]

* In ''VisualNovel/UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'', [[spoiler:Beatrice Castiglioni]], Kinzo's beloved mistress, died this way [[spoiler:after giving birth to their daughter, Beatrice II]]. This officially warped Kinzo into the insane old man we know and love, but what's worse is that [[spoiler:he eventually [[ParentalIncest raped Beatrice II]] under the delusion that she was her mother's reincarnation, making her pregnant]].

May be used to set up a tense family situation where the father or older siblings unreasonably blame the youngest for "murdering their mother" and turn him/her into TheUnfavourite.

* General Stanton's wife from ''[[Literature/GarrettPI Old Tin Sorrows]]'' succumbed to this trope shortly after giving birth to their daughter, Jennifer. [[spoiler: Subverted in that the insanely-jealous General had actually engineered her demise, drugging her with an anti-coagulant and blaming the "mistake" on her physician.]]

* In ''[[KushielsLegacy Naamah's Curse]]'' by Jacqueline Carey, it is revealed that Queen Jehanne died giving birth to a daughter.

* Can happen in ''{{FATAL}}'', although this can easily be because the FetusTerrible is ''a sentient, raptophilic military fork just like its father''.

* [[TheElricSaga The last empress of Melniboné]] "died bringing her sole thin-blooded issue into the world", as if Elric's DoomMagnet sundae needed that cherry on top.

* In ''VisualNovel/UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'', [[spoiler:Beatrice Castiglioni]], Kinzo's beloved mistress, died this way [[spoiler:after giving birth to their daughter, Beatrice II]]. This officially warped Kinzo into the insane old man we know and love, but what's worse is that [[spoiler:he eventually [[ParentalIncest raped Beatrice II]] under the delusion that she was her mother's reincarnation, making her pregnant]].

* In ''Roleplay/TheGamersAlliance'', [[WhiteHairedPrettyGirl Viirsa]] gives birth to Kaisa and dies in her lover [[MightyGlacier Hector's]] arms after being fatally wounded in the aftermath of the infiltration of Myridia during the Great War.

* The ''CiemWebcomicSeries'' and [[UltimateUniverse succeeding books]] go for the inversion: Candi lives; Angie dies.
** '''Classic Gerosha''': Angie exhausts her LifeEnergy to defeat Kimi's PsychicPowers.
** '''Comprehensive Gerosha''': Angie is fatally injured and dies a few hours after birth [[SlidingScaleOfRealisticVersusFantastic because the house imploded during a bombing and fell on top of Candi]]. Kimi's clairvoyance is defeated by Angie's conception anyway.

* Frances Hodgson Burnett's ''TheSecretGarden'': Technically, Lilias Craven died from falling out of a tree. The fall also triggered early labor, and Lillias was barely able to give birth to Colin right before she died.

* A very interesting version of this occurs in Berserk, [[spoiler: Guts is born to a woman that already died]]

* In the AlternateUniverse StretFighterAlphaGenerations OAV, it's said that a young woman named [[spoiler: Sayaka]] died like this. Her surviving child grew into [[spoiler: either the local NiceGirl Fuuka... or series protagonist Ryu.]] And the father? [[spoiler: '''Akuma'''.]]

* It's often thought that Julius Caesar was born by Caesarian section and therefore that his mother had died in childbirth (since Caesarians were 100% fatal to the mother at that date). Unfortunately for people who like to believe in UrbanLegends, Caesar's mother survived his birth for many years, and the term "Caesarian section" derives from the Latin ''caedere'', to cut. "Caesar" probably means "grey-eyed" or "elephant", and was the dictator's family name for 300 years before his birth. The words do not seem to be related, although [[FanWank many authorities are convinced they are]].

* In Creator/CSLewis's ''TillWeHaveFaces'', a [[TwiceToldTale retelling]] of Psyche and Cupid, the death of Psyche's mother in childbirth opens the way to Orual's [[PromotionToParent being her mother figure]]. [[MyBelovedSmother Rather much so.]]
* In ''{{The Shadow of the Wind}}'', Julian Carax, author of the eponymous book, has a DespairEventHorizon after his lover dies in childbirth (the child dies also). He never knew that the reason her family allowed her to die was because [[IncestIsRelative she was his sister]].
* Míriel in Tolkien's ''{{Silmarillion}}'' dies of weariness after giving birth to her son Fëanor, saying "[never] again shall I bear child; for strength that would have nourished the life of many has gone forth into Fëanor." (Indeed.)

!!'''As a DeathTrope, all Spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware.'''

* Miriel in Tolkien's ''{{Silmarillion}}'' dies of weariness after giving birth to her son Fëanor, saying "[never] again shall I bear child; for strength that would have nourished the life of many has gone forth into Fëanor." (Indeed.)