why were medieval cesarean sections fatal? Excluding obvious infection risks, why was the procedure it’s self deadly?

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Came home from a placental abruption resulting in a horrifying emergency c section and 2 week hospital stay and made a bad choice to watch House of the Dragon where cesareans are a death sentence. I did a bit of research and found out medieval c sections did happen but were only performed if the mother was dying anyway as it was always fatal. I understand that infection would’ve killed any surviving women back then but apparently they died during the operation anyway. So I’m confused about what killed women during the procedure it’s self? As far as I’m aware I did not receive a blood transfusion so it can’t have been blood loss which would’ve been my guess pre my own experience. Did they not have the medical tools necessary to put those women back together afterwards eg stitches? Or did they not know how to make insicions in a non fatal way?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

I just want to add this because I haven’t seen it in the comments, and it’s so cool – cesareans were actually performed successfully in Uganda and Rwanda way before Europeans figured out to wash their fucking hands.

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/cesarean/part2.html

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