Maternal Mortality in New France
In New France, childbirth was extremely painful and potentially life-threatening, with about 1.5% of women dying in the 60 days following childbirth. Learn why maternal death was so prevalent and how society was eventually able make pregnancy and childbirth safer for mothers.
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Maternal Mortality
Maternal mortality, or maternal death, refers to deaths that occur during pregnancy, childbirth, or within 42 days after delivery, by the modern definition.
“De zieke vrouw” (the Sick Woman) by Jan Havickszoon Steen, circa 1663-1666 (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam)
In New France, childbirth was not only extremely painful but also potentially life-threatening, with about 1.5% of women dying within 60 days of giving birth, the measure used by historical demographers studying this period. In other words, one death occurred for every 80 births, equating to a maternal mortality rate of 1,250 deaths per 100,000 live births. For comparison, Canada's maternal mortality rate in 2022 was 8.53 deaths per 100,000 live births (30 maternal deaths).
Without modern medicine and conveniences, pregnancy and childbirth were physically demanding and dangerous. The risk of maternal mortality was highest in the two or three days after childbirth, primarily due to hemorrhage. After childbirth, women were typically completely exhausted and needed three or four weeks to fully recover. However, in the countryside, new mothers often did not have the luxury of a long recovery. They had other children to care for, homes to manage, and animals and gardens to tend to. Consequently, they would generally be back on their feet and resuming their duties fairly quickly, increasing the risk of maternal death.
Data show that older women, between the ages of 30 and 45, were at even higher risk of maternal death, having already gone through several pregnancies and births. The specific causes of death included severe bleeding during childbirth, post-childbirth infections, high blood pressure during pregnancy (pre-eclampsia and eclampsia), and other delivery complications.
Over the last four centuries, modern health professionals, medicine, improved hygiene practices, and birth control, among other factors, have significantly lowered the maternal mortality rate in Canada.
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Sources:
Hubert Charbonneau, Vie et mort de nos ancêtres : Étude démographique (Montréal: Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal, 1975), 140-148.
André Lachance, Vivre, aimer et mourir en Nouvelle-France; Juger et punir en Nouvelle-France: la vie quotidienne aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Montréal: Éditions Libre Expression, 2004), 38-40.
Public Health Agency of Canada, "Maternal Mortality in Canada", Government of Canada (http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2012/aspc-phac/HP10-19-2011-eng.pdf), 2011.
World Health Organization, "Maternal Mortality", WHO Newsroom (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/maternal-mortality), updated 19 Sep 2019.