# Died In Childbirth. Really?? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 23, 2017, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/died-in-childbirth-really/791913 "2017-07-23T01:11:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2017, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/died-in-childbirth-really/791913/1 "2017-07-23T01:11:49Z")
Tomorrow we attend a memorial for the wonderful wife of a dear colleague. We both know him professionally. I’d met her a few times - the last time their then newborn son was sleeping on her bosom, happy as a clam. She died last Monday. Immediately after giving birth to their second child, a somewhat preemie daughter. ( She is apparently doing pretty darned well. ) I know that there are no guarantees and that childbirth is- even in 2017- sometimes a very dicey thing. But damnation. I didn’t even know what forum to place this in. It’s hardly Mundane and I don’t feel like cursing and ranting. Hug your S.O. Tickle your kids. This fellow has a 3 year old boy and a 7 day old girl. And a big loving family and literally hundreds of friends and colleagues. And he’s bereft. What an awful awful thing. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2017, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/died-in-childbirth-really/791913/2 "2017-07-23T01:25:30Z")
I hardly know what to say. I’ve known people who lost young spouses, but I can’t imagine how they really feel. Does this person have religious faith? I’ll pray he and the kids get through this. I know a minister who had a wife and three kids. Returning from and out of town medical appointment for one of the kids, their car was struck by another, and he lost his wife and two of the kids. Their graves are in the same cemetery where I plan to be buried. Has there been a schedule set, if needed, for folks to come in and help deal with your colleague’s housekeeping or child care needs? ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2017, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/died-in-childbirth-really/791913/3 "2017-07-23T01:25:54Z")
How sad. Unfortunately, this may become more common. the US had the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world, and it is rising. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2017, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/died-in-childbirth-really/791913/4 "2017-07-23T01:33:52Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > I hardly know what to say. I’ve known people who lost young spouses, but I can’t imagine how they really feel. > > Does this person have religious faith? I’ll pray he and the kids get through this. > > I know a minister who had a wife and three kids. Returning from and out of town medical appointment for one of the kids, their car was struck by another, and he lost his wife and two of the kids. Their graves are in the same cemetery where I plan to be buried. > > Has there been a schedule set, if needed, for folks to come in and help deal with your colleague’s housekeeping or child care needs? We will learn much tomorrow. The word got passed quickly once he made it public on Wednesday using social media. Someone rapidly got a private fundraiser going to assist him. ( I did NOT know that GoFundMe take a heck of a slice from all $ ). PayPal - Friends and Family - charges no fees. The amount is as yet unknown, but since they were both freelancers, this may be a bit of a freefall. I believe he and the family were religious. Are religious. Oh man. When does one use past tense here? ☹ **Sternvogel** , that’s a chilling piece of news I did not know of. ---
**Author:** ![SamuelA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@SamuelA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SamuelA)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2017, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/died-in-childbirth-really/791913/5 "2017-07-23T01:54:45Z")
As to the _how_ - obviously childbirth is extremely strenuous on the human body. Under the strain, she could have blown a blood vessel in her brain, developed a clot that caused an embolism, or any number of other causes of sudden death. Current medical practice would not be able to do anything. That’s sort of an inherent risk to being a fragile creature made of living meat. I’ve expressed my opinion a few times around these forums. Her death may have been inevitable, but we as a society did not need to guarantee it was permanent. If she died in a hospital, her brain could have been carefully preserved by licensed professionals, and as soon as we develop the tech far enough, she could be brought back to the living through some form of emulation. There is no scientific evidence to say you cannot do this : all credible knowledge as of 2017 says that if the information was in fact preserved, she could have been restored once society has the means to emulate brains from that information. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2017, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/died-in-childbirth-really/791913/6 "2017-07-23T01:55:19Z")
> [@Sternvogel](#): > > How sad. Unfortunately, this may become more common. the US had the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world, and it is rising. Much of this is due to - what else - drug addiction. ☹ Sadly, there are a few very rare obstetrical complications that can kill a woman no matter what anybody does. The most common are HELLP syndrome and amniotic fluid embolism. > **[Preeclampsia - Hellp Syndrome](https://www.preeclampsia.org/hellp-syndrome)** > > HELLP syndrome is a life-threatening pregnancy complication usually considered to be a variant of preeclampsia. Symptoms of HELLP Syndrome, Treatment of HELLP Syndrome [http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/amniotic-fluid-embolism/basics/definition/con-20035462](http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/amniotic-fluid-embolism/basics/definition/con-20035462) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2017, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/died-in-childbirth-really/791913/7 "2017-07-23T04:12:32Z")
I lived in a “board-and-care” home (essentially, a “rest home” for the elderly or otherwise moderately-dysfunctional people) for about a year, about 10 years ago. On the same property was a so-called “convalescent hospital”, which as everybody knows, is primarily a nursing home for the much-more-severely (mostly elderly) dysfunctional people – mostly people with severe strokes, dementia, etc. – people who are NOT “convalescing”. There was a youngish (maybe early 40-ish or not even that) female there who was fairly severely brain damaged – wheel-chair-bound, could move but only just barely, couldn’t speak but an unintelligible mumble, no idea how mentally acute she was – – because of a stroke or embolism or some such disaster while giving birth. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2017, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/died-in-childbirth-really/791913/8 "2017-07-23T04:14:48Z")
That’s how one of my grandmothers died, years and years before I was born. The baby (my aunt) survived into her 80s. ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2017, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/died-in-childbirth-really/791913/9 "2017-07-23T04:27:11Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > There was a youngish (maybe early 40-ish or not even that) female there who was fairly severely brain damaged – wheel-chair-bound, could move but only just barely, couldn’t speak but an unintelligible mumble, no idea how mentally acute she was – > > – because of a stroke or embolism or some such disaster while giving birth. Probably an amniotic fluid embolism. It’s a very rare occurrence, but if it does happen, it is disastrous. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2017, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/died-in-childbirth-really/791913/10 "2017-07-23T06:00:58Z")
It’s horrible beyond imagining. I am in awe at what humans are capable of enduring and surviving. I hope that his large, supportive family will be his rock as he struggles through this. I’m glad his baby girl is healthy and I also hope his love for his children will ultimately be the force that carries him toward healing. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2017, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/died-in-childbirth-really/791913/11 "2017-07-23T13:29:33Z")
A tragic event. And yes not as rare as it could be or as many of us would assume it is. > [@Sternvogel](#): > > How sad. Unfortunately, this may become more common. the US had the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world, and it is rising. [More about that.](http://www.npr.org/2017/05/12/527806002/focus-on-infants-during-childbirth-leaves-u-s-moms-in-danger) > [@](#): > > … The reasons for higher maternal mortality in the U.S. are manifold. New mothers are older than they used to be, with more complex medical histories. Half of pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned, so many women don’t address chronic health issues beforehand. Greater prevalence of C-sections leads to more life-threatening complications. The fragmented health system makes it harder for new mothers, especially those without good insurance, to get the care they need. Confusion about how to recognize worrisome symptoms and treat obstetric emergencies makes caregivers more prone to error. > > Yet the worsening U.S. maternal mortality numbers contrast sharply with the impressive progress in saving babies’ lives. Infant mortality has fallen to its lowest point in history, the CDC reports … > > … Earlier this year, an analysis by the CDC Foundation of maternal mortality data from four states identified more than 20 “critical factors” that contributed to pregnancy-related deaths. Among the ones involving providers: lack of standardized policies, inadequate clinical skills, failure to consult specialists and poor coordination of care. The average maternal death had 3.7 critical factors. … It must be noted that the [infant mortality](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr63/nvsr63_05.pdf) comment is slightly misleading. The US has improved there but infant mortality improvements are still slower than in comparable developed countries and rates remain “behind most European countries as well as Japan, Korea, Israel, Australia, and New Zealand.” ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2017, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/died-in-childbirth-really/791913/12 "2017-07-23T13:43:20Z")
> [@SamuelA](#): > > If she died in a hospital, her brain could have been carefully preserved by licensed professionals, and as soon as we develop the tech far enough, she could be brought back to the living through some form of emulation. I never fail to be aghast at suggestions like this. What “licensed professionals” do you think do this? What makes you think we have the tech to do anything like this? > [@](#): > > There is no scientific evidence to say you cannot do this : all credible knowledge as of 2017 says that if the information was in fact preserved, she could have been restored once society has the means to emulate brains from that information. Cite. From a _reputable_ source. Freezing causes cell rupture, leaving you with mush when you thaw it out. Chemical preservation is likewise damaging. This is the real world we’re talking about, with a real woman who is really dead, not whatever science fiction thing you recently saw/read/imagined. Saying “sorry, your wife is dead but you COULD have saved her if you did X” is not comforting, it’s actually pretty goddamned cruel. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2017, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/died-in-childbirth-really/791913/13 "2017-07-23T15:57:57Z")
> [@SamuelA](#): > > I’ve expressed my opinion a few times around these forums. Her death may have been inevitable, but we as a society did not need to guarantee it was permanent. If she died in a hospital, her brain could have been carefully preserved by licensed professionals, and as soon as we develop the tech far enough, she could be brought back to the living through some form of emulation. > > There is no scientific evidence to say you cannot do this : all credible knowledge as of 2017 says that if the information was in fact preserved, she could have been restored once society has the means to emulate brains from that information. **SamuelA** , please take a step back, recognize that your comments aren’t really about or helpful to the OP, and note that you have ample opportunity to bring this up in a more relevant thread (or, preferably, start your own if you haven’t already). It does not belong in this thread. This is an instruction for all thread participants to cease that hijack, and to take it to a more appropriate thread if you wish to continue discussing it. ---
**Author:** ![Patx2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/73ab20/32.png) [@Patx2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patx2)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2017, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/died-in-childbirth-really/791913/14 "2017-07-23T16:00:47Z")
I just wanted to drop in and say I’m very sorry for such a tragic loss, especially at what should be such a happy time for the family.