What are the chances of deathly complications during childbirth?
I can’t give you exact mortality rates, all I can say is that it is low. Low enough that at my hospital, which does roughly 4500 deliveries per year, and what’s more is we serve a large proportion of high risk patients who are more likely to die, we haven’t had one death in the 5 years I’ve worked there. I’ve asked nurses I work with and they can only really remember less than 5 mothers who have died in the last 20 years. So that’s really not many. Vaginal birth is definitely safest for an uncomplicated pregnancy, and even for many high risk conditions under certain circumstances. Surgery is a huge risk for infection, which can be very life-threatening, not to mention hemorrhage, reactions to anesthesia, etc. The biggest risk for a vaginal birth is hemorrhage after delivery, and yes, there are treatments. There are medications that can be given, several of them can be used in fact. They monitor your blood loss very carefully. They have access to blood if you need a transfusion rapidly.
