Explanation: Soldiers often see a lot of death.
… midwives, in past eras, helping women deliver children, saw a lot of fucking death. Before the advent of modern medicine, both children and mothers very commonly died in the process of childbirth. The death rate was ~2% per birth - considering that it was normal to have numerous pregnancies and large families at the time, this could end up with a frighteningly large percentage of women dying in childbirth, with estimates ranging from 10%-30%. And midwives were there all the while, trying their best to save as many as they could with the limited tools and knowledge at their disposal.
… ‘interestingly’ enough, early in the development of modern medical practice in the 19th century AD, doctors, many of whom considered themselves of the genteel middle class, could end up causing higher mortality rates during childbirth than traditional midwives - by an entire order of magnitude. This was for a number of reasons, including the notion that reminding a ‘gentleman’ to wash his fucking hands (seeing as he’s working with sick people and, potentially, cadavers, all fucking day) was implying that he wasn’t cleanly on his own initiative, harumph harumph; and the usual pigheaded classist and sexist rejections of advice from their ‘inferiors’, including their own patients.
By ~1900, though, this had dropped to under 1% - lower than traditional midwife practices.
In modern statistics in developed countries, death in childbirth is closer to 0.02% per birth - and with much smaller families being standard on top of that.
Sergio@piefed.social 9 hours ago
And here I thought Obstetrix was just the best friend of Asterix the Gaul….
Successful_Try543@feddit.org 8 hours ago
The healthy cousin of Obelix. He mostly eats fruits and vegetables.