Hi, everyone! I am writing a story set in 1880s England. The heroine develops severe anemia later in her pregnancy; has a difficult labor, because she is weak as a result of anemia; then post-partum hemorrhage; then childbed fever because treatment for pph is pretty invasive and sterilization standards in 1880s are not all they should be. Right now I am at the childbed fever stage, and this is where I am stuck. First of all, I am not sure how to describe it. The online sources give the symptoms, but I am not sure if symptoms alone would be enough. The only other source of information I can think of is the corresponding scene in "Anna Karenina", and I don't find it a very clear description of what exactly happened. And my second problem is that, according to what I see online, surviving childbed fever was highly unlikely at the time (in Anna Karenina the doctor actually says the likelihood of survival is 1%), but I certainly cannot have my heroine die because she is the main character, and I am nowhere close to the end of the story.
So what I need is
1. Help with description of childbed fever - what actually happens
2. Advice on how my heroine can realistically survive it.
Thanks!
I think you might have created your own problem through listening to Tolstoy! I'm going to throw you in the direction of Ignas Semmelweiz, who pioneered the revolutionary technique of... erm... washing hands to prevent puerperal fever, which may be the condition you're referring to. Survival rates in hospitals anywhere between 10% and 35% (or lower in Vienna at Semmelweiz's time, thanks to the bad habit doctors had of infecting their own patients when going to the morgue between patients, then not washing their hands. Charming).
Childbed fever was a huge killer, but not a guaranteed one. There's enough leeway there for you, I think.
Realistically at that time, chance was one thing that could save her. Medical knowledge was aware of germ theory (1864 - although it should also be added that it wasn't universally accepted, despite major steps forward in medicine being taken as a result even at this stage. The work of surgeons such as Joseph Lister, with aseptic surgery, was beginning), so they knew that the fever was caused by either bacterial or viral infection, but they had no way of treating either. Survival was pot luck until the development of penicillin. The thing I do note is the haemmorhage - which would have required surgery. That surgery would most likely have been aseptic, and you can use that as your explanation - a mild infection from surgery which was not antiseptic, but was a rushed attempt at aseptic surgery. Maybe not the world's most scientific explanation, but one which really makes sense in the historical context.
Thank God (well, sort of) for carbolic acid and spray. Smells awful, cracked the hands of the surgeon, but probably saved countless lives. Sutures also soaked in carbolic spray would have been a key part of the surgeon's toolbox.
Hopefully that's helpful. I can't help too much with a description of the fever itself, but on treatment and survivability I hope it's made a difference.
