"They used to keel over regularly before modern medicine and my wife has been on medication for a thyroid condition ever since she delivered . '' During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries , 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 . This meant that if a woman had eight female friends , it was likely that one might die in childbirth. ``"
"Sinjin , we are n't talking about the 17th and 18th centuries ."
"regularly before modern medicine and my wife has been on medication for a thyroid condition ever since she delivered"
"we are n't talking about the 17th and 18th centuries ."