Ask the Author Part the Second: For want of a nail

[attackfish]

Ganked from askerian by way of suzukiblu

Inspired by Doctor Who's "Turn Left:" Pick one of my stories and tell me a point in the tale that you'd change. Something tiny (e.g. "and then Harry told a knock knock joke instead of a light bulb joke") or big (e.g. "and then June found Koh's spine and ripped it out before he could crush her arm and steal her face") and I'll tell you how that one difference would have altered the course of the entire story.

Comments

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

According to the NIH and National Library of Medicine, the rates of maternal mortality in England (The records were better there, why the U.S. NIH was keeping the data...) in doctor and midwife kept records in the 18th century (which they were already starting to be careful about, though governmental involvement in those records would come later) Midwife and surgeon home births accounted for between 5 and 29 maternal deaths per 1000 women, depending on the location and how maternal death was calculated. The numbers shrank as the use of certain surgery techniques were mostly abandoned in favor of midwife style techniques on the parts of surgeons. However, as lying in hospitals became more common, their maternal death rates were calculated to be 85/1000, likely due to pore sanitation and a greater willingness on the part of doctors to take surgical solutions. Since the big push by doctors was not only to get rid of midwives but move births into hospitals. Since lying in hospitals and physician assisted birth was still relatively rare, and midwife and surgeon home birth was improving, this did not effect average birth and death rates.