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Childbirth in early America was a difficult and sometimes dangerous experience for women. Records indicated that between 1 percent and 1.5 percent of all births ended in the mother’s death as a result of exhaustion, dehydration, infection, hemorrhage, or convulsions. Since the typical mother gave birth to between five and eight children, her lifetime chances of dying in childbirth ran as high as 1 in 8. Death was sufficiently common that many women regarded pregnancy with dre

Irene B. Dean Smith (c. 1807-1829) There are few records of Irene B. Dean. Likely born in South Dedham in 1807 to Ebenezer Dean and the...