CLCV 3201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Sanctuary Of Artemis Orthia, Chilon Of Sparta, Chariot Racing
Document Summary
Once a woman reaches puberty her role becomes a gyne, gynaikes woman where their function largely becomes childbirth. This is of course the most dangerous point in a woman"s life, because there was a high mortality rate. There are no antibiotics, analgesics or advanced surgery. A lot of women would just die of exhaustion or perhaps they would die of internal hemorrhaging. The risk of a woman dying in childbirth is around 10% in the developing world. The largest proportion of women that die would die of internal haemorrhaging (25%). Infections are another source of death, any would can become infected (13% of women that die in childbirth). 8% of death, doctors in antiquity had tools to cut up babies in the vagina. The other catch all category is blood pressure which contributes 13% of death in labour. This is compounded by the problem of multiple pregnancies, women were pregnant most of the time or were recovering form it.