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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A few basic things right off the bat.
1 – scalpels were not really a thing. Sure you can get a knife pretty sharp. But you were not getting super thin surgical steel with a sharper than razor edge. Without modern tooling, you just cannot pump out tools like scalpels. So to withstand a coal forge, you have heavier thicker knives, that do not have edges as sharp as a razor. Plus without stainless steel, you have bacteria, rust and other foreign bodies that can get into the wound.
And instead of having a small, light, sharp, manageable tool you are using a much heavier knife. Which gives you much less control. So the incisions will be much more jagged, which can bleed more, and it is easy to cut deeper than intended.
2 – medical textbooks as we know them now were just not a thing. Instead of having very detailed pictures that show you exactly where to cut, what the layers of skin, muscle, fat, and everything look like. You have hand drawn pictures that even if done by an expert, are not going to be very precise.
3- anesthesia was not a thing yet. And we didn’t know nearly as much about dosing as we know today. So either the mother wouldn’t be awake, and squirming and struggling against people holding her down. Or you tried to pump them with enough opium that they pass out, but not enough that you kill them. And without monitoring devices, it is extremely difficult to keep a patient right on that edge.
And these are just 3 very basic things that we take for granted now, but we’re life threatening back then.
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