122: The Dark History of Childbirth: We’ve been giving birth ALL WRONG
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RIP. Make switching seasons a breeze with Quince's high quality closet essentials. Go to quince.com slash dark history for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's quince, Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash dark history to get free shipping and 365 day returns. quince.com slash dark history.

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

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The year is 1983. An iconic toy makes its debut and finds itself on the Christmas list of every child in America.

I'm talking cabbage patch dolls. Remember them? I mean, everyone wanted one so bad and it made you feel like you had a real baby to take care of. Kids would take them to school, to the mall, sleep with them at night. It was everything. And it's like you'd see everyone walking around with fake babies or whatever, you know? It just like fed into a natural maternal instinct.

But if you look around today, these kids don't want to babysit some weird looking like flat face doll. No, no, no. Kids today, they want Sephora, they want Ulta, they want iPhones, they want stock options, you know? Maybe not, but that's what it feels like. But even though things have changed, there's always still that friend who's like, "I can't wait to be a mom," you know? But as you get older, you realize how scary like actually having a child is.

I mean, not only that, you find out how dangerous childbirth is, even to this day. So let's unpack the dark history of childbirth.

Hi friends, I hope you're having a wonderful day today. I'm about to ruin it. My name is Bailey Sarian and I'd like to welcome you to my podcast, Dark History. Look, here we believe history doesn't have to be boring. A lot of times it's pretty tragic. Sometimes it's happy, but either way, it's our dark history. So all you have to do is sit back, relax, and let's talk about that hot, juicy history, goss.

Hey, you know what's funny? I always say like hot, juicy history gospel. A lot of the times it bleeds into today, right? You know, so it's really not history. It's like today too. I just had a realization. Thank you. Okay.

Childbirth, let me tell you. Childbirth is a unique subject for us to tackle because, you know, it's been around forever. Our earliest human ancestors first appeared allegedly six million years ago. I mean, I wasn't there, I don't know, but allege. So yeah, I mean, making babies has been around for literally forever. If they didn't, you and I, we wouldn't be here. So it'd be like the end of the story, right? You get it. We've all came out of a body.

Somehow. But honestly, the thing that got my attention was this insane stat I saw. Now, according to the World Health Organization, around the world, every two minutes, two minutes, a woman dies during pregnancy or childbirth.

That's the end of the show. Thank you for coming. Just kidding. It's 2024 and you and I are both thinking, Bailey, Bailey, there are like medical advancements and techniques. I mean, how are people still dying? But like the number of women who die giving birth, it seems to actually be going up. So it's like, what the heck is going on, right? Who's trying to kill us? That's what I was thinking. I mean, did things like in the olden days, were they actually better back then or something? I just had to know.

Researchers have uncovered female teeth from the Neolithic period, which is like 10,000 to 2000 BC. I know, hard to imagine what that looked like. But when these experts analyzed the teeth, they noticed a big increase in the number of stress lines. Yeah, I guess stress can show in teeth.

That's what I learned. That's my takeaway of today's episode. Anyway, Sophia Stefanowick, a professor of anthropology said that women were having more babies and this was giving them more stress. And it was showing up on their teeth. So it makes sense that as time goes on, women carrying babies were looking for help like wherever they could get it. And they would pray to their gods for protection, for safe childbirth. But like also that wasn't cutting it.

So the ancient Anglo-Saxons came up with an interesting ritual to help with childbirth. The Anglo-Saxons believed that a woman could avoid a hard childbirth, or worse, a stillbirth, if she did a ritual dance with both a dead man and a living one. So go dig up grandpa, get him dancing with you, doing like some kind of hoedown.

You should be good, you know? Anyway, so they need to be doing this while reciting like some mystical charm. And the pregnant woman would like dance across a dead man's grave. I know, what? Okay. Then she would approach the living man who was also, I guess, laying on the floor. Usually it was like the husband. And then she would dance over them too.

I know you're probably thinking what the because I was thinking that too. I guess the thinking here was that by stepping over the dead man, a woman was avoiding death and like passing into life.

Make it make sense? I don't know, but that's what they thought, so good for them. So yeah, things were difficult back then, but like one major change in the childbirth game was like just around the corner. Something that would revolutionize the birthing process. And it couldn't have come at like a better time because, you know, things were looking...

Rough. To zittily. You know that one good tank top that you wear like all year round? I mean, it fits you just right. So you wear it all the time. But maybe now it's getting a little old. Shifting my wardrobe from summer to fall is always a challenge. Luckily, Quince offers timeless and high quality items that I love.

love so I can make sure my wardrobe stays fresh and I don't blow my budget. They've got cashmere sweaters from $50, pants for every occasion, washable silk tops. And my favorite part, all Quince items are priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. By partnering directly with top factories, Quince cuts out the cost of the middleman and pass

the savings on to us. And Quince only works with factories that use safe, ethical, and responsible manufacturing practices and premium fabrics and finishes. I recently got this 100% European linen short sleeve shirt. Ooh, I love linen. And you know, it was so comfortable, so cute. I can finally retire my old ratty tank top. Aw.

R.I.P. Make switching seasons a breeze with Quince's high quality closet essentials. Go to quince.com slash dark history for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's quince, Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash dark history to get free shipping and 365 day returns. quince.com slash dark history.

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner and more.

So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24-7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what. Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive.

Sorry.

There's a famous phrase that people say a lot when it comes to raising kids. They often say like, "Oh, it takes a village." And the origin of this saying actually comes from African cultures. And it's not just about raising kids, it's also about giving birth. From the year 3500 BC to 500 AD,

the midwife became a hugely important role. The word midwife comes from Old English and it means with woman. This midwife was trained specifically to assist women during labor. You see, at this time, giving birth was something that was like done behind closed doors.

And the mother usually had no idea like what she was doing. I feel like it's still the same now, right? Does anyone really know what they're doing? They just kind of tell you what to do when you do it. But she needed all the help that she could get. Being a midwife was a paid gig. I'm not sure how much they made, but like these women, they were usually older. They had children of their own. So they had some firsthand experience, which is great. The Greeks and Romans had very specific boxes

that this midwife needed to check. They believed that a good midwife was, quote, "literate with her wits about her, possessed of a good memory, respectable, robust, and endowed with long slim fingers and short nails at her fingertips," end quote. Which kind of makes sense, but it's kind of gross, you know?

So the midwife would be there and she would give advice like to the mom who was like pushing the kid out on when to change positions, when to push. And like she would dive in there all hands on deck, right? To get the baby into a better delivery position.

So, I mean, sometimes that would involve hands involved in there, right? So fingernails being short makes a lot of sense. Once the baby was born, the midwife would stick around to help the new mother, like learn how to take care of her precious baby. And in ancient Egypt, those midwives had an interesting role to play in that department.

The papyrus ebers is an ancient Egyptian medical text with like a bunch of herbal knowledge on it. It was written around the year 1500 BC. Now, ancient Egyptians saw breastfeeding as like a very sacred thing to do. And it gave very interesting instructions on like how to make that happen.

The papyrus said, quote, Yeah, good thing I got one of those swordfish bones laying around, right? Like...

You got some too, I know you do. But like if that didn't work, then there was a plan B. And no, not that plan B. That wasn't invented yet. But the papyrus said that, "Let the woman sit cross-legged and eat fragrant bread while rubbing her breasts with the poppy plant." Now that sounds like a fun Saturday night, you know what I'm saying?

but I guess it helped. The Egyptians use this to help with breastfeeding, but our expert, Dr. Polly Radosh, told me that this could also help to speed up the delivery of the baby. I guess stimulating the nipples releases a hormone that like helps with contractions. And it's a method still used today. Let me know down below, are you rubbing your nipples?

Let me know. So those ancient midwives, I guess they're onto something, right? Look, back then, like if you found a good midwife, you would hold onto them for dear life because like she'd be with you during the most intimate moments. And she was essentially like the first and last line of defense for vulnerable pregnant women bringing a new life into the world. And given how important of a job this was, people were willing to pay like

the best of the best to get a good midwife, like Scribonia Addis. Back in the year 140 BC, there was like this ancient Roman woman named Scribonia Addis.

I know, Scribonia, good for her, great name, Scribonia, that's a good one. She was married to a surgeon, okay? But instead of like coasting off of her husband's success, she wanted her own thing. She had her own goals. So she became a Roman midwife and was one of like, I guess the best there was.

She did such good business that she was able to finance a bougie tomb for herself and her entire family, which was like very, very rare back then for a woman to do. I guess you can visit her burial monument to this day,

But on it, there's an incredible sculpture depicting Scribonia in like full midwife-y mode. She's hunched over, she's sitting on a stool in front of a pregnant woman who's being supported from behind by like another woman. And honestly, when you look closely, it looks like the pregnant woman is in like a headlock and it's like, well, okay.

Maybe they helped with the birth of the baby. I don't know. In this depiction, Scribonia is inserting her right hand directly between the woman's legs to help deliver the baby. And the best part of the sculpture is that Scribonia is looking directly at you. It's very like she's looking into your soul, you know?

It's kind of like walking into a room when no one was expecting you and everyone just pauses and stares. That's what the depiction looks like. They're all just like,

Excuse me, wrong room. It's kind of intimidating. So not all midwives had successful endings like Scribonia. Earlier I said this was like you know a paid gig. Well that sounds great. There's always the dark side because there was an exchange of money. There was like very high expectations and midwives were held responsible for the outcome of the birth which is like could be good but also

if it went bad, you know, they would be on the hook for it. If the baby was born healthy and also a boy, the midwife would get a bonus, which is great, right? But the preference for a boy was backed up by someone who was super influential in society at the time. Aristotle, wow, the legendary philosopher, you know him? So he had a theory that when a baby girl was born, something had gone wrong.

Yeah. Which is kind of stupid because without a girl, you wouldn't have life. So Aristotle, sit the down. But whatever. So to avoid this, he advised horny couples to check the weather forecast before having sex. Aristotle said that if a couple wanted a boy, they should have sex while the winds were blowing north.

How the fuck are you supposed to know that, you know? To remember this, I made up a little rhyme for all of us. If the winds are blowing north, come forth. If the winds are blowing south, put it in the mouth.

Let's say something went horribly wrong during the pregnancy with either the mother or the baby, then the midwife could be in big trouble. Maybe the child was born with like a deformity or the mom passed away from complications, which was like very common back then. A midwife would be charged with witchcraft and then like sentenced to death.

So you could say it was a high pressure job. This type of thinking stuck around for like a really long time because the very first witch trial in colonial America happened in 1626. And the woman at the center of the accusations was actually a midwife who allegedly cursed a pregnant woman and her child.

One thing to note is that most historical descriptions of childbirth came from ancient times from the upper class. They controlled what history was written and as a result, whose history was completely forgotten, you know? They also had the money to afford midwives, so like good for fucking them. Everyone else was just raw dogging it, hoping for the best.

For lower class mothers to be who didn't have cash for a midwife, they would lean on like female friends and family members for support during labor. So it was like no matter what, women of all social classes were surrounded by other women. And if others tried to get involved, the consequences were deadly. Okay, let me tell you about this doctor. His name is Dr. Wirt. Yeah, Wirt.

Gross, it's too close to Wart. Anyways, so Dr. Wart was a physician in Hamburg, Germany, 1522. As you can imagine,

So he wanted to learn more about like where babies came from. And as a man, he was not allowed into the birthing room. It was only women. So in order to like get some insight, he has to go undercover. Okay. So Dr. Wirt goes full Mrs. Doubtfire, disguises himself as a woman and decides to like try and blend in with the other midwives and like see

the action. Things are going fine for a while until someone Dr. Wirt knows recognizes him. Okay, so someone like knew that he was there, okay? And then they exposed his ass and dragged him out to the town square. Now everyone's there gathering around. All of his physician buddies, they come too and they're watching. And they all came to see Dr. Wirt be burned at the stake.

just for like sneaking in. That's pretty intense. But him being burned at the stake was like really to send a message. At this point for thousands of years, a woman's health was her business. I mean, men were not involved, okay? They were kept far, far away from it. But men, need we say more? You know, they're not. If someone tells them no, what are they gonna do? They don't fucking listen.

It's not going to end their curiosity, please. You know that one good tank top that you wear like all year round? I mean, it fits you just right. So you wear it all the time, but maybe now it's getting a little old. Shifting my wardrobe from summer to fall is always a challenge. Luckily, Quince offers timeless and high quality items that I love.

love so I can make sure my wardrobe stays fresh and I don't blow my budget. They've got cashmere sweaters from $50, pants for every occasion, washable silk tops. And my favorite part, all Quince items are priced $50 to

80% less than similar brands. By partnering directly with top factories, Quince cuts out the cost of the middleman and passes the savings on to us. And Quince only works with factories that use safe, ethical, and responsible manufacturing practices

and premium fabrics and finishes. I recently got this 100% European linen short sleeve shirt. Ooh, I love linen and you know, it was so comfortable, so cute. I can finally retire my old ratty tank top.

RIP. Make switching seasons a breeze with Quince's high quality closet essentials. Go to quince.com slash dark history for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's quince, Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash dark history to get free shipping and 365 day returns. quince.com slash dark history.

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner, and more. So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year so you're protected no matter what.

Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customer surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. ♪

Now throughout history, women instinctively, they would just choose how they wanted to give birth, depending on like what felt best for them when they were giving birth. And for thousands and thousands of years, this actually included standing. Yeah, standing, you know, kneeling or even squatting.

And to me visually, like it kind of the squatting to me makes sense. Like that actually makes sense to push a kid out, you know? But like we know all this because there are actually ancient paintings that have been found in caves of women giving birth vertically, like standing up or squatting. Some of these paintings, they show women holding onto something for leverage. I imagine you probably need that when you're pushing out this fucking huge ass child.

But there are also like depictions showing women sitting or leaning against a wall. That makes sense, right? In Greek mythology specifically, they had a goddess of birth. Her name was Elythia. She was usually shown kneeling. God.

Are you kneeling with like your legs obviously open? Oh my God. I don't ever want to have a kid. I don't know how you guys do it. I really don't. I give all moms out there a lot of credit. The fact that you grew an alien in your body and then you managed to somehow get it out of you. I know God gave me ovaries and shit, but I was like, I'm good, God. I'm good. I'll get a puppy.

I don't know if you guys can see Paul behind me, but he's got one of these alien babies that I don't, who pushed this out? Where'd you get that baby? First of all, demon. Okay, so listen, techniques on how to push this thing out. Another way to try and like give a birth to a kid would be like, I guess you can hold onto a tree for dear life.

Okay. As time went on, we get an upgrade and things like birthing stools and chairs are invented. Now this is like iconic, a birthing stool. You might remember from our sex toys episode, there was a man with a very special name, Dr. Soranus.

Do you remember? I don't even think that's how you say it, but that's how I say it. Sore anus. But he was an ancient Greek doctor who was considered by many to be like the father of modern day gynecology.

Which is just questionable in itself, right? Like conflict of interest, sir. Yeah. Which is concerning because he basically advocated for women to never have sex and he was all about preaching abstinence. But for women only, you nasties, you know? Anyways, Sorianus was one of the first people back in the year...

138 AD to advocate for the birthing chair. This was a specially made chair specifically for childbirth that was popular all the way through the Renaissance. These chairs, or sometimes they were just, they're called stools. They usually had three or four legs and a seat with like the middle of

cut out of it. It's like a toilet without a bowl. So the woman, she'd be giving birth, right? She would rely on gravity for the baby to drop down from the womb and then like pop out of her vagine. And like, when you think about it logically, it totally makes sense. And that sounds like the most

comfortable, right? These chairs were like pretty valuable. So if you were poor, it was like the kind of thing that you would loan out to other families. Yeah, you just have it in the corner and you just wait, you know, then let someone borrow it. If you were wealthy, they were kind of like an heirloom that would be inherited and like passed down through generations. Some of them, especially like the nice ones, were hand painted and like beautiful.

Wow. So really between standing, sitting, kneeling, I mean there at least were like a variety of options, right? But none of these, maybe you've noticed, none of these include laying on your back. So why the fuck do we do it, right? Because nowadays, what do you do? You lay on your back to push this thing out. So how did we get here?

Up until the year 1550, the people involved in helping a mother give birth were again all female. But then, men. I fucking roll, right? Men. There was a big shift in like the medical field. Surgery was something that was like not really handled by physicians back in the middle ages. Instead, if you needed something done that involved you being cut open, you would call your barber.

You know, sometimes I'm like, I wanna go back to the olden days and when I hear shit like this, I'm like, nah, I'm good. I'm all right. Barber, you're barber. Now the reason they would call up your barber is because guess who had the sharpest knives and razors? The barber, it makes sense. So anything from like a haircut to needing a limb amputated, you're going to super cuts, bitch.

This becomes a more popular profession over time and these people become known as barber surgeons. Could you imagine? And they start to get called in whenever there's a complicated birth, specifically when manual fetal extraction was needed in order to save the baby's life. It's pretty much like an emergency C-section, which back then,

Rarely did the mother survive a C-section, so why even call in this guy? Just slice her open yourself, you know, but whatever. So these barber surgeons, they had a competitive advantage over the traditional midwife. This was because they were trained in handling any difficult situations that required cutting someone open

And if you could afford it, it would make sense that you would want someone who could step in just in case, you know, worst case scenario happens. So as time goes on, these barber surgeons start to compete for birthing jobs with the midwives. And if you're like me, you're probably asking like, wait, why don't these midwives just get certified as like a barber surgeon too? Or why don't they just carry a fucking knife with them? Like, right?

Well, they weren't allowed to. During the Middle Ages, women were absolutely forbidden from performing medical procedures or using instruments like forceps. Forceps are a smooth metal instrument that look like tongs. They clasp on... I'm sure you've seen them. They look like what people use on the barbecue, you know? So that you would clasp the baby's head and then pull that shit out. Girl.

I don't know how you guys do this. Anyways, they're very effective. They still use them to this very day. The forceps were invented around 1600 by a couple of brothers, Peter Chamberlain and Peter Chamberlain.

Yes, Pete and Pete. The parents, they just ran out of ideas for names. Anyway, the Peters followed in their father's footsteps and also became male midwives in England. And we don't really know what inspired them to invent the forceps. I could imagine just being in the action. That's probably how they thought of it.

But with this invention, they became known as like the go-to guys to call when a birth got really difficult. Even Queen Anne and Queen Henrietta of England hired Pete and Pete to come tong that fucking baby out. Using those tongs they invented, they could help make sure that the baby and the mom would survive. So it's kind of like a win-win. You know, you want these tongs up your vag.

chances of you living are way higher. But instead of like sharing this game changing invention with the rest of the world, the Chamberlain family, they were like, "Mm, sorry, it's ours." And they gatekeep it for about 100 years. But why? Geez, you guys. They were so secretive about their forceps that they transported them in a covered carriage and carried them into the delivery room in like a giant box.

What's that show? Deal or no deal? It's giving me that, you know? When they, like, a beautiful woman comes in with, like, a, like, the briefcase. They're so dramatic. And then one day, the family decided to actually sell their invention. And ta-da! The world had forceps. Okay, but listen, I kind of lied to you. The world didn't really have forceps because there was a little catch.

The catch was that only men could use the forceps. And because of the Peters and their forceps, this is where shit really like starts to hit the fan. Childbirth went from being a woman's job, right? Being done in like a social setting or at home to now a medical procedure that could only be done by a male doctor. Bitch.

One barber surgeon named Francois Morisseau made an impact that would forever change the way women... You know that one good tank top that you wear like all year round? I mean it fits you just right so you wear it all the time but maybe now it's getting a little old. Shifting my wardrobe from summer to fall is always a challenge. Luckily Quince offers timeless and high quality items that I

love so I can make sure my wardrobe stays fresh and I don't blow my budget. They've got cashmere sweaters from $50, pants for every occasion, washable silk tops. And my favorite part, all Quince items are priced $50 to

80% less than similar brands. By partnering directly with top factories, Quince cuts out the cost of the middleman and passes the savings on to us. And Quince only works with factories that use safe, ethical, and responsible manufacturing practices

and premium fabrics and finishes. I recently got this 100% European linen short sleeve shirt. Ooh, I love linen and you know, it was so comfortable, so cute. I can finally retire my old ratty tank top.

RIP. Make switching seasons a breeze with Quince's high quality closet essentials. Go to quince.com slash dark history for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's quince, Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash dark history to get free shipping and 365 day returns. quince.com slash dark history.

This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yep, while you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you're not in some kind of moving vehicle, there's something else you could be doing right now. Getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you can save money by doing it from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner, and more. So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24, 7, 365 days a year so you're protected no matter what.

gave birth

Francois Morisseau is the freak of the week here at Dark History because he's the guy generally recognized as telling women to give birth lying down on their backs. Yes, him. He apparently said that the reclined position would be quote, more convenient for the doctor, end quote. And remember, doctors were not women, they were men.

So their comfort was most important for sure, obviously. He made this claim in his book "The Diseases of Woman with Child and in Childbed" which he wrote in the year like 1668. So Francois was like an odd guy. He viewed pregnancy as an illness.

Need I say more? Yeah, we listened to this guy. So he once wrote that like pregnancy was a quote, "tumor in the belly," which produced an infant.

And it was Francois' writing that ended up classifying all births as abnormal medical issues. This meant that there was no room for like a midwife in the birthing process because only a skilled doctor or the barber was ready to handle the illness that was childbirth.

Basically in order to like get women in the hospital and trust men to assist in giving birth, they had to convince us that like pregnancy is almost like a terminal diagnosis and you need to seek medical intervention for it. So instead of squatting against a tree and letting good old Tabitha help you out, people were fear mongered into treating birth as like life or death, right? And it was easy to prey on that fear because at the time,

one woman died for every 40 births. Meanwhile, at the same time, King Louis XIV, he was on the throne and here's something they will not teach you in AP European history. King Louis had a little king. They always did, right? Shit. He loved to sit in and watch a woman give birth. Sick. But King Louis hated the birthing stool.

It made him deeply upset because he couldn't see what was going on. He was like, what's going on down there between those lips, you know? So when he heard about this new idea from Francois about women giving birth on their backs, he was like, oh my God, no.

Hell yeah, spread 'em wide, right? Like, let me watch. King Louis began advocating for women to give birth exclusively on their backs, which would make it easier for him to watch the whole thing with like a front row view. And on top of that, he ordered that men, specifically men, be the ones in charge in the delivery room.

Well, of course he did. Jeez. We like don't know exactly how big of an impact this had on the culture, but we all know that the royals have always been like trendsetters and if they did something, everyone else wanted to do it. Plus, honestly, like if you think about it, if you were a person at the time and you heard that the royals were doing, like giving birth on their back, I would think like if they're doing that, it must be because it's right.

So I should do it too, you know? So nobody was really like kind of questioning it. Between King Louis XIV and like that Francois loser guy, by the end of the 17th century, the bed was now like the most popular place to give birth in France. And then this development spread across Europe. If you're like me, you're out here wondering, were women just like white knuckling it through childbirth without like any medicine?

Inventions were popping up left and right to get the baby out, but was anybody thinking about the mother and, I don't know, pain? Well, there was one person, a fan favorite of Dark History, some might say. Hint, she's the reason Christmas trees became so popular and the reason we wear white wedding dresses. Can you guys guess who I'm talking about?

Well, I'll have the answer when we come back. Hi, we're back. Did you figure it out? Well, if you guessed Queen Victoria, you were correct. Yay, congratulations. You won nothing. Now, Queen Victoria was no stranger to drugs. She liked to party. Being a queen during the Victorian era meant that you got VIP access to all the kick-ass new experimental drugs that were out there. She was like, fuck yeah, you know, just like...

For example, laudanum, which was essentially opium diluted with alcohol. Some people would have like a daily dose of that just to get going for the day. It was like their protein shake. And to keep you going, you'd turn to the kitchen for your favorite sweet or like candy laced with cocaine. So you would get like the high of the sugar and then obviously the high of the cocaine and you were just like queen. Off with their heads. Fuck yeah, just look.

Queen Victoria was pregnant for almost like 10 years in a row. Totally sucks. It's like 19 kids and counting or whatever. It was just one pregnancy after another. She and her husband, Prince Albert, reportedly, I guess they loved each other. I don't know. So he was like always knocking her up. And the queen wasn't too happy about this because it was said that she experienced very painful pregnancies. Well, girl, stop riding that dick. Jeez.

Anyways, so once she was on her sixth birth, she was like, "I'm not doing this anymore, okay? Like, I need some relief." So she decided to use a new drug to help her through the painful birthing experience. And you'll never guess what kind of drug it was. It's so funny. She used chloroform. - Oh!

I know, she would take a cloth soaked in chloroform and like put it over her mouth and get hot as fuck. She once described it as quote, "That blessed chloroform, soothing, quieting, and delightful beyond measure." Honestly, after doing the research for this, I now just wanna chloroform myself, so.

Great chloroform PR queen, Victoria. More women who had access to medical professionals were able to use chloroform just like the queen, right? They're like, "Chloroform me, bitch."

and then they would get a baby. But then the problem turned into something else. It wasn't necessarily the pain that terrified women the most, it was the very real possibility that giving birth could kill them. I mean that would scare anyone right? By the 1800s many women knew once they gave birth they'd never be the same again. And it's not even in a funny like

I've seen some shit, man, you know, that kind of way. It was because doctors didn't really study how to care for women

after birth. It's like, oh yeah, that's a thing, huh? Giving birth in general is risky, but in the middle ages, real shitty. As soon as women found out like they were pregnant, the first thing they would do is draft a will and write to their family. "My dearest loved one, I am with child. I have nine months until my death. Please take my shoes.

Something like that, you know? They would do this because it was a coin toss. You didn't know if you were gonna live. One woman wrote to her family saying quote, "Between oceans of pain, there stretched continents of fear. Fear of death and dread of suffering beyond bearing." Wow. They really put things so beautifully, don't they? Wow. That's such a nice way to say I'm in fucking pain. But

That sucked. Mm-hmm. Many women like suffered from infections to the areas that were torn or cut during birth. There were issues with women getting something called rectovaginal fistulas, which means some connection got messed up between the vagina and the butt. And now there were like feces coming out of the vagina.

Not good. Not only that, these complications would make sex super painful, which already that sucks. But if you did manage to have sex again and you got knocked up, these complications would cause you to have an even more painful and life-threatening complications for your next pregnancy.

If only they would just let women be women and help each other, we probably wouldn't have these problems, huh? And the worst part, there were no cures for these complications until the mid-1800s. So even if you called a doctor, they'd be like,

Congratulations with that baby. Sorry about your tank. Good luck with that. You know, I was curious about how they even figured out how to cure this. And of course, I mean, hi, it's dark. For decades, a male doctor named James Marion Sims, no relation to the game, experimented in the medical field. I've been playing The Sims a lot lately. So I got Sims on my mind. Anyways, not him.

But he experimented in the medical field and he was able to create tools and surgery techniques that would be used for reproductive lady parts. He was considered like a medical hero in the 1800s. It wasn't uncovered by historians until later that Dr. Sims was figuring out all these medical cures by experimenting on enslaved women.

Enslaved women with fistulas would approach Dr. Sims or be brought to him by the people that owned them.

and a cure would be dangled right in front of them, a quote unquote cure, you know? But they'd have to go through a few of his experimental treatments first. And of course, without any pain medication, this guy, he would reportedly keep the woman he experimented on in a shed, great, and just kept experimenting on them until he found a cure. A cure was eventually found,

in the shed. But apparently Dr. Sims figured out a way to use, I'm twitching, metal stitches to keep the tear, the tear from opening and getting infected again.

I guess he tested this on one of his enslaved patients, a woman named Anarka. Anarka was brought to Dr. Simms by the man that owned her. She'd recently had a stillbirth, which resulted in her getting like these life-threatening fistulas. She was experiencing uncontrollable bowel movements through all the tears in her body and was reportedly...

I think we probably could believe her, in horrible pain. Dr. Sims experimented on Anarka 30 different times, all without medicine. Now I guess there was medicine available to give to her, but like he didn't want her to know that. You don't see Anarka getting like any credit for his invention though. I mean, why would he give her credit?

Instead, everyone became obsessed with male doctors like Dr. Sims and the new birthing technology that was coming out. They're like, you know that one good tank top that you wear like all year round? I mean, it fits you just right. So you wear all the...

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Wow. But at what cost? In the early 20th century, the American Medical Association, or the AMA, was growing. And right away, there was a competition between like old world traditions and new medical technology. At the time, midwives were still delivering 50% of all the births in the US, but out of nowhere, they started to get like a really bad rap.

Many pregnant women still didn't feel comfortable going into a scary hospital to get poked and prodded by a doctor. They still preferred a midwife. So the nasty AMA started a smear campaign against the midwives. I know, it's like, oh my God, get a fucking hobby. Leave...

women alone. But they took out ads in newspapers in major cities so everyone would see it. And the ads would feature some like haggard ladies on one side and like a crisp, clean, white hospital on the other side. And the caption would read, which do you want for your baby?

Now this made midwives look incompetent, dirty, and now dangerous. When the reality was midwives lost less babies during childbirth than doctors. But they weren't saying that. Like hospitals at this time, they didn't take extra care to avoid like infections or anything afterwards. And no one like fully knew about the dangers of transferring germs from like one patient to another. So...

It was rough. Like for example, a doctor would go examine a man who had the flu and like get all up in his business and be whatever, you got the flu. And then take like those same tools and go deliver a baby without washing his hands.

Whoopsie. This would cause complications and infections that would lead to the death of the mother and sometimes babies during childbirth. But midwives were bad, you know? So doctors had the upper hand and the money when it came to the PR fight against midwives. The final straw came in 1915 when a very influential doctor, another fucking man named Joseph DeLee, made public statements that made many people

lose faith in midwives. Why do we listen to these fucking men? He essentially said that midwives lacked training and expertise and that doctors should handle pregnancy. Just like that French doctor, it's like here we go again. He believed that there was an essential flaw in midwife thinking. To midwives, pregnancy was just a normal part of life.

to the medical community of like mostly male doctors, it was seen as again like a dangerous condition that needed to be monitored by a hospital. There was a lot of hope and promise about new medical developments and like science happening during that time. So a lot of complications that pregnant women feared now seemed like they could be solved, but in the hospital.

There were articles being written in women's magazines telling them to find a reliable doctor, male of course, because he knew what was best for her body. By the 1940s, the message was very clear in America.

If you wanted your baby to live, you gave birth in a hospital with your male doctor. So with doctors present, it took the guesswork out of birth complications. There were reportedly less infections, so women now had a chance of living a normal life after birth, but behind the scenes, there was always something shady going down.

Despite convincing everyone that giving birth in hospitals was the safest thing to do, there was no decrease in the number of women dying during childbirth during this time. Pregnant women were living and dying at the same rate whether they gave birth in a hospital with doctors or at home with their midwives. Plus, there was still a lot to be learned about the science behind giving birth.

Yeah, they still don't even know how it worked, really. Many medical procedures weren't going through a testing and approval process. So like new medical procedures being practiced on women went through, quote,

So it was essentially like the honor system when it came to creating new medical practices around birthing. Like a rich woman in labor, for example, would often pressure doctors into giving them pain meds.

medicine. And doctors would give in not knowing the effects it would have on her or the baby. There wasn't really regulation on how much, how often, or even when to give the pain medicine. Women would be in labor all high, right? And it would go on for way too long. And then they would experience complications like breathing issues, which

could be deadly for some, but still doctors used different pain medicine throughout labor, including one of the most infamous medicines, the Twilight Sleep. Nothing to do with vampires. Twilight Sleep, I was like, what's that? I never heard of it. Twilight Sleep essentially is when women are given a combination of the drugs morphine and scopolamine.

Sounds like a party to me. But this drug would put women into a state where they weren't like fully knocked out, but they also didn't feel any pain. So kind of sounds like a win, but they essentially had no idea like what was going on.

and the experience of the birth was like completely wiped of the woman's brain. It was a memory eraser, which is kind of nice. I'm like, what's so bad about that? But Twilight Sleep was branded to the public as quote, the painless birth.

Many rich pregnant women actually traveled to Germany where it was created just to like get a chance to have a twilight sleep birth. Okay, so with this twilight situation, like women would lose their inhibitions and I guess just go totally out of their mind. It would even like make them psychotic.

I guess. I wasn't there, but I heard. It would make them psychotic. I guess they would still be experiencing insane pain. The only thing the drug was doing was suppressing the part of their brain that allowed them to remember the pain. So you're still experiencing like a lot of pain. You're just not gonna remember it.

I don't know if that's a good, does that, I don't know. But some women were into it, right? But I guess when they were given this, some women would like attack staff or people around them. So they would have their arms and legs forcibly strapped onto a table while they were giving birth.

Honestly, it just sounds awful, right? Like you're a prisoner, I don't know. This sounds traumatic. So I guess like also the women would like bang their head against the operating table, the walls, I mean, whatever. A lot of the time women would get their head like wrapped in a towel.

And you know that old school like practice where doctor holds a baby upside down and like slaps the baby to help them breathe or like scream or whatever they're doing? Yeah that's because of twilight sleep. The drugs would affect the babies so much that they wouldn't be able to breathe normally because they were high as shit. So the doctors would like smack the shit out of the baby to essentially bring them out of a coma.

Trauma, this is trauma. And it's kind of easy to be like, oh my God, this is so long ago. That doesn't happen anymore, thank God. But no, twilight sleep was a thing well into the 70s, which is like less than 50 years ago. So ask your grandma about it. I bet you she's a twilight baby. When I was doing my research into what modern birth is like today, I was shooketh.

to learn that the United States has quite the bad reputation. According to a study by the Commonwealth Fund, which I'll link down below, the United States has the highest rate of preventable deaths in pregnant women than any other wealthy country. We're number one! We're number one! America's great! We're number one! Yeah!

Yeah, I love America. And get this, sadly, the number keeps rising. So we're still number one, baby. I guess there are about 24 deaths per 100,000 live births, which sucks. In 2021 alone, which I don't know, was three years ago. Oh my God, I thought that was like last week.

But in that year, 1,205 women died giving birth. And that might not sound that bad, but think of it like this, because when I heard it like this, I was like, wow. That's like six commercial airplanes full of passengers just like dropping out of the sky and blowing up. Like no one talking about it. Doctors have said that most of these deaths could have been prevented. So...

What the hell's going on? I mean, it's 2024. You would think we'd be in the future. We'd be living in a time of medical advancements and hopes to prevent all of this, right? Jeez. Many doctors say it has to do with like the rise of diseases like diabetes,

heart disease and even obesity. But honestly, the problem is the mortality rates were high even before America had those problems. So stop lying. And listen, that's not even like the core of the issue. The research shows that so much of that death happens because mothers don't get the treatment they need in time.

or they don't even get treatment at all. And that's especially an issue if you're a black mother in America. There are so many heartbreaking stories about black women and families asking for help with unexplained symptoms or pain and doctors completely ignore them. Their symptoms aren't taken seriously or they aren't treated as quickly as other women. The explanation, according to physicians like Dr. Monique Rainford,

and OBGYN says it's because of something called implicit bias, AKA racism that's baked deep inside.

She says, quote, a caregiver may think that they are doing the right thing for their pregnant patient, but their implicit bias against the woman's race affects the care they deliver. According to the Center for Disease Control, American Indian, Alaska Native, and Black women are two to three times more likely to die during pregnancy than a white woman. Oh, fuck.

Maternal death rates specifically in the black community are about 70 deaths per 100,000 births, which is more than double the national rate for other women. And the worst part, yeah, 'cause it's just like a worst part, so many mothers and infants could have been saved if they had doctors who took the time to listen. I don't know, if they had doctors who did their job. What is the problem with doctors not listening? What is that about?

I give up. I say we bail. Let's get the fuck out of here. Where are we going? Europe? I'll figure it out and I'll let you guys know. Stay tuned. Many women also believe the solution is to go back to the ancient way of doing things. No, not rubbing your titties with a poppy plant, even though like I'm all for that. Foreplay. But by bringing back the midwives.

in like a hospital or birthing center situation. Yeah, right? You know what's funny is like growing up when I think about like, I remember hearing about midwives and stuff and it was always seen as like, it was kind of frowned upon, right? Like they really did have bad PR for quite some time. And it was all these fucking male doctors. Bring back the midwives because people need to have an advocate working for them really. Just push one out in your backyard.

Find that tree, hold on for dear life, get a midwife, squat, push it out, okay? That's probably way better than going to the hospital at this point. Because if you're lucky enough to have insurance in America and give birth in an American hospital, I hear it can feel like a rushed process with a really high bill.

to follow, you know? I don't know if you know this, but I haven't had kids, but I guess if you do have a baby, you birth one out at a hospital. I guess like you're in, you give birth.

If you're lucky you don't have complications then you're rushed the fuck out. If you have a c-section it's kind of like they cut you open, you're stitched up and you're sent back home two to four days later, right? There really isn't like a detailed follow-up process for postpartum care and I guess it's usually like a one-size-fits-all situation. I hear in the UK you can push one out and then like go home and you don't even get a bill.

Can you believe that? Wow. It seems crazy that right now we are seeing the consequences of something that happened hundreds of years ago. Like one French dude tried to take over birth. Well, same with the Peters guy. As if like his college degree was better than thousands of years of women's lived experiences. Birth is not a problem that needs solving. It's, I'm sure you're aware.

But it's a natural process that just needs, you know, guides to help women on the journey. And of course, yes, it's nice to have a doctor in town if things go wrong, but I never really thought about it until recently, until this story of like, they do treat childbirth like an illness, right?

That's like such a weird way to think about it. Another thing that stuck out to me throughout learning all this was that so many mothers just don't feel heard. Their symptoms, their pain, their suffering are cast aside probably because doctors didn't believe or trust their, I don't know why the fuck they do it, right? And like, that's a big problem because when women get to the hospital to give birth, they're placed on a bed on their back

Freaking news to me and probably to a lot of people out there that us women, we do have a choice when it comes to the position you're in when giving birth in a hospital. For example, at Lancaster General Hospital, it's like part of the University of Pennsylvania health system.

they outright say on their website, quote, "Your care team should allow you to deliver your baby in whatever position works best for you." End quote. Wow, what an idea. So it's like you can recline, you can kneel, you can squat, you could like, I don't know, whatever feels right, you could do it. Childbirth should be this beautiful thing, right? I mean, it's like so incredible that our bodies can create life and the fact that you can like,

it comes out of you. That's wild. And the men just turned it into this psychotic, like traumatic experience. And I hate this story. But ladies, listen, I actually don't have any advice for you other than you're allowed to speak up and I don't know, get a fucking midwife. Good luck.

And speaking of women being gaslit, did you know that back in World War II, a famous actress who hated Hitler actually invented the technology that would be used for Bluetooth? Yeah, took a sharp left into fucking Bluetooth. But here we are, because next week we are diving into the incredible story of Hedy Lamarr.

Oh, which is kind of like fun. On my YouTube channel a couple years ago, I did a Hedy Lamarr makeup tutorial. It came out really good. I'll have to link it. Join me over on my YouTube where you can watch these episodes on Thursday after the podcast airs. And while you're there, you can also catch my murder mystery and makeup

I'd love to hear your reactions to today's story. So make sure to use the hashtag dark history over on social media so I can follow along. Now let's read a couple of comments you guys have left me. Abe. Hey Abe. I knew a guy named Abe once. He was really hot.

Are you hot? Let me know. Abe left a comment on our Beauty is Pain episode saying, quote, "I'm pretty sure that's where the term fire crotch comes from, burning the bush off." End quote. I could see that, but fire crotch, it usually is a redhead specifically, right? And it wasn't, when you burned your crotch hair off, it didn't really matter what color hair, but I could see that.

I like where your brain is going. I like that you're thinking and that's what this show's all about really. But I think fire crotch, I think Lindsay Lohan invented that to be honest. Do you remember when everyone called her fire crotch for a long time? Poor thing.

That was a wild time. Anywho, Jasmine Maria left me a suggestion. Petition for Bailey to release a dark history edition of Trivial Pursuit with a new deck of cards released every year based on newer videos?

Oh, ow, that's a great idea. I'm stealing it. Not giving you any credit. Thank you. Just kidding. Kyrie left us an episode suggestion saying, "You should make an episode about hair industry wigs, hairdressers, and extensions. Love you, Bailey, and you have a great team." Thank you. That's a great idea because

I know the history of extensions and it's dark. And the only reason I don't want to do an episode on hair extensions is because once I put that information out there and I still, I know my ass will not give up hair extensions. Like I will be buried in my grave with fake hair, okay? And I don't want to admit that it's bad.

Maybe I'll do an episode. But then I'll be a hypocrite. Well, I'm always a hypocrite. Like, I'm still drinking fucking Nestle chocolate milk every day. I'm sorry.

Anyhow, enough about me. Thanks so much for leaving comments, you guys. I look forward to reading them every week, so keep them coming. And I'll be reading those. Thank you. Dark History is an Audioboom original. This podcast is executive produced by Bailey Sarian, Junya McNeely from 3Arts, Kevin Grush, and Matt Enloe from Maiden Network.

Writers, Joey Scavuzzo, Katie Burris, Allison Palobos, and me, Bailey Sarian. Production lead, Brian Jaggers. Research provided by Xander Elmore. And I want to give a special thank you to our expert, Dr. Polly Redosh. And if you forgot, I'm your host, Bailey Sarian. I hope you have a good rest of your week. You make good choices. Be safe out there. Get a midwife.

And yeah, we're talking to you next week. Goodbye. Hardy Fiber Cement Siding handles conditions that can cause damage to vinyl. From fire to hail, Hardy Siding stands tall through it all. Helping trade professionals look their best when they recommend Hardy Siding and Trim. See the proof at jameshardy.com.

I'm Stanzi Potenza. And I'm Brad Padre. Launching June 13th is our new podcast, Late to the Party. In this post-ironic chat show, we'll show you a window into our world of crazy post-ironic thoughts. An unlikely friendship founded on a shared love for riffs, ranting, and getting absolutely wrecked.

Consider this an invitation to our inside jokes. You're late to the party, but no one cool ever shows up on time. Follow Late to the Party on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to this kind of stuff.