The Tragedy of Maternal Mortality
- Patricia Fanning
- May 8
- 2 min read
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 dread. And approached childbirth with a fear of impending death.
Old Parish Cemetery is the final resting place of several women who lost their lives subsequent to giving birth. Here are a few:
Sarah Coney Guild (1733-1755) Lot 196
Sarah Coney was born on April 18, 1733. On January 1, 1751 when she was 17, she married Aaron Guild, 23. The young couple had two children: Aaron Jr., born in 1753 and Oliver, born in 1755. Within two weeks of Oliver’s baptism, Sarah died on February 18, 1755 just shy of her 22nd birthday.
Levina Morse Andrews (1780-1804) Lot 63
Levina Morse was born on November 20, 1780, the youngest child of Oliver and Sarah Pettee Morse. On March 29, 1800, Levina Morse married Joel Andrews, the youngest child of David and Hannah Fuller Andrews. Levina and Joel had two children: Lavina, born in 1801 and John, born in 1804. Levina Morse Andrews died on August 22, 1804 at the age of 24; her death was related to the birth of her son, John.
Irene B. Dean Smith (c. 1807-1829) Lot 86
There are few records of Irene B. Dean. Likely born in South Dedham in 1807 to Ebenezer Dean and the former Lois Morse. Irene B. Dean married Warren Smith on April 10, 1828 in Dedham. They moved to Sharon. The couple had one child, Irene Dean Smith, born on December 22, 1829. A few days later, Irene B. Dean Smith died on December 30, 1829 in Sharon, of complications from childbirth. She was 22.
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