My great great grandfather’s first wife (who was also my great great grandmother’s younger sister because my great great grandfather married his deceased wife’s widowed sister after her death, yes, my great grandmother had older siblings who were simultaneously her half-siblings and first cousins, my family tree is a bizarre wreath and this is the tip of the iceberg) contracted scarlet fever as a child and it caused rheumatic heart disease which is where the inflammation triggered by the strep infection causes chronic damage to the heart and makes the heart valve malfunction and grow more narrow over time. In her final pregnancy, she contracted measles (or possibly rubella/German measles, this occurred in rural Appalachia in the 1910s so the medical care was spotty) and it caused her to go into labor prematurely. Pregnancy already puts extreme stress on the body and the combination of viral disease, a chronic heart condition and preterm labor caused her heart to fail right after she gave birth to her stillborn daughter.
Her death and the death of her baby would have been totally preventable in the modern day. Strep throat is still a common childhood illness but it can be easily treated with antibiotics and it rarely progresses into scarlet fever and rarely causes rheumatic heart disease with proper treatment. Measles and rubella are both prevented by the MMR vaccine, which is safe and effective. Proper prenatal screening would have detected her heart weakening and been able to monitor and treat her and her baby accordingly. Modern medicine would have been capable of monitoring fetal heartbeat during labor and they could have performed a c-section when the baby showed signs of distress, saving the life of her child and preventing this poor woman from going through hours of agonizing labor that ultimately killed them both.
Her death was due to damage caused by a common and treatable childhood illness, caused by a vaccine preventable illness and a lack of obstetrical monitoring and emergency intervention. And people want to give their children homeopathic bullshit instead of taking them to the doctor and receiving actual appropriate treatment for common childhood illnesses. People do not want to vaccinate their children because they forget these viruses are a bigger threat than the small risk of vaccine reactions OR they truly believe vaccines cause autism and would prefer to have a dead child instead of an autistic child. People want to forgo any prenatal treatment and have wild pregnancies and free births with no medical supervision because ‘our bodies are made to do this’.
And I get it, I get it. I do understand why there is a lack of trust in the medical system, I understand the extensive failures of obstetrical care and why pregnant people may be afraid to entrust these people with their lives. The answer to your stress and fear and desire to do what is best for your child and yourself is not to shun modern medicine but to fight like hell to make it better.
Because we can’t go back. Because we shouldn’t go back. Because my great great grandmother’s sister’s death was 100% natural and unmedicated. She did not deserve that. Her baby did not deserve that. No one should die like that in the modern world where it can be prevented. Healthcare should be free and accessible and patient focused. Public health and preventative measures like vaccinations should not be matters of political debate.
