Line #5 Analysis/DeathByChildbirth


1	It seems as though, in a certain subset of cases, this trope is applied to the mothers of violent anti-heroes or villains to show that yes, there actually is something "off" about these characters going back at least as far as their birth (picture Voldemort from ''Literature/HarryPotter''). There may be a couple of reasons why this works: it subtly makes the case that the character is so steeped in death and suffering he couldn't even help but kill his own mother, and on the other hand, his mother's death might be the one death related to him that he did not willingly cause (and indeed might have contributed to his going evil if he later suffered abuse or neglect from whoever his parental figures were).
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3	This trope is also quite popular with fangirls: quite a lot of fangirl-pleasing characters have it in their backstory and if it's not there, a fangirl may add it later. One possible example of this phenomenon may have occurred in the ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' fandom when N first became popular: the idea that N's mother died in childbirth, despite never receiving any confirmation from canon, has since been found on Website/ThisVeryWiki, in at least one Tumblr headcanon post, and in no fewer than ''two'' fanfics!
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5	!!History
6	In historical fantasy works, its use is often quite utilitarian: in a world without contraception, typical family sizes are ''large''. Two healthy, fertile adults, having unprotected sex for 20-odd years before menopause cuts it off, typically puts you in the range of 6 to 12 children--sometimes more. Now remember it isn't just ''one'' family in your story that has this many kids: it's the ''majority'' of families.
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8	That's a lot of characters to account for.
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10	Historically, though, the whole mother-died-but-the-child-survived thing is largely a literary invention. Infant mortality rate (deaths of children under one year of age) was ''far'' higher than the maternal mortality rate, with estimates ranging from 10% to 50%.
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12	!!How this trope plays out historically and biologically
13	For most of human history, humans survived through subsistence farming, which is very labor-intensive. This tended to result in girls [[ValuesDissonance being married young]], so they could get an [[TeenPregnancy early start]] on generating the next generation of farm workers. [[https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/adolescent-pregnancy#:~:text=Adolescent%20mothers%20(aged%2010%E2%80%9319,birth%20and%20severe%20neonatal%20condition Pregnancy and birth during teenage years is a risk factor in maternal and infant death]]. This was a ViciousCycle as high maternal and infant deaths meant that girls needed to give birth as young as possible, but this is itself a cause of maternal death.
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15	[[GroinAttack Female genital mutilation]] is a common problem in certain countries, and is often [[MeatgrinderSurgery sloppily done]] by [[BackAlleyDoctor unqualified surgeons]] (though the qualifications of any surgeon performing [=FGMs=] can rightfully be called into question). The healing from the procedure often turns most of the vulva into scar tissue, which has poorer elasticity, resulting in much more difficult labor and increased risk of tearing, which is an avenue for bacteria to enter the mother's body.
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17	Humans are one of the few mammals to have a particularly nasty "disadvantage" in our biology where the placenta connects directly to major blood vessels. This is a major "point of failure" and should there be problems with placental detaching a woman can hemorrhage to death in minutes.
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19	Another major killer is infection, also known as puerperal fever. In 1847 the Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweiss decreased deaths from infection in his obstetrical clinic from 20% to 2% simply by introducing the revolutionary new technique known as handwashing.

Context Analysis / DeathByChildbirth