As most of you know, who read this Blog, I have long been researching my ancestry. I have been able to discover my ancestors as far back as 1500 years ago. It has been fascinating to find that some of them were Kings and Queens and some of them died in the crusades in the Holy Land. I have photographs of many castles these fortunate families owned still standing in Europe.
Throughout this adventure a sad fact has come to light. Many of my female ancestors died the same year they gave birth to one of their children. I knew childbirth was a dangerous event prior to modern medicine but I didn't have the names and death dates of so many of these poor young women. Some of them died in their teens others in their twenties or older. Childbirth fever must have been a common cause due to midwives or doctors failing to wash their hands. Others must have died an agonizing death when the baby was born breach or the mother bled to death during the birth. Of course there were many women who survived a dozen or more births of healthy babies.
Today I remember and honor those brave women who gave their lives so that I might live hundreds of years later.
Copyright 2009 Sharon Porter Moxley
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