4 October, 2019 4 MIN READ
An event has been held in London to celebrate one of history’s unsung heroes: the pioneering rebel, Mary Wollstonecraft who famously wrote: “I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves.” Anita Rani and Jude Kelly and a star-studded cast brought to life the inspirational story of the ‘original suffragette.’ Wollstonecraft was an Enlightenment icon and human rights champion. An Amazon Steps Outwas written by Bee Rowlatt and directed by Honor Borwick with musical contributions assembled by Harriet Houghton Slade.
As part of the evening SARAH BROWN contributed to a book produced for the event with her chapter on Mary Wollstonecraft and Maternal Mortality. The full text of her contribution appears below.
Day to day who thinks about women dying in pregnancy and childbirth in the 21st Century? – it happens more than you would think, but these days we have the benefit of research investment, trained midwives, nurses and doctors and our brilliant NHS. But in 18th Century Britain, it was a common danger for women throughout each pregnancy that it might end fatally for both mother and infant. History is full of the stories of women losing their lives needlessly, painfully and tragically – well it would be full of their stories if their stories were all properly told.
Mary Wollstonecraft’s brilliance as a writer, thinker and advocate for women’s rights and education meant that she had made her mark in her lifetime and so the tragedy of her death soon after giving birth to her second daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (later Mary Shelley, the future writer of Frankenstein) was a loss that was noticed and marked. Even her infamy as her husband’s published account of her remarkable and unconventional life caused controversy meant that her loss was noted if harshly at the time.
For us today, Mary Wollstonecraft left such a generous personal record in her writing of her intellectual courage, innovative thinking, compassion in supporting girls’ education and advocating women’s rights that we are rightly celebrating her life. But it has always struck me that Claire Tomalin’s 1974 biography was deliberately entitled The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft – setting out the importance of the manner of her passing – too soon, unfairly and painfully for her and her family.
One of Mary Wollstonecraft’s great personal qualities was her capacity for strong female friendships, none more so than with Fanny Blood in whose home she lived. When Fanny married and moved to Italy, Mary left the girls’ school she had created to go and join her in a difficult pregnancy. Here, sadly, another woman’s life was lost in childbirth as, in 1785, Fanny went into premature labour and literally died in Mary’s arms and her new-born child soon afterwards.
We have to believe that later when Mary had her first daughter in 1794 and gave her best friend’s name to her, she was fortunate with a smooth pregnancy and birth, and could not envisage that the same fate awaited her next time around.
Mary’s life ended cruelly at the age of 38 of a post-partum infection arising giving birth to her second daughter – a daughter she never got to raise or encourage or teach. She also left her elder daughter, Fanny Imlay, motherless, aged only three years old, and a bereaved husband whose terrible grief led to his own book wanting to highlight her uniqueness, modernity and rebellious spirit inadvertently causing her reputation to suffer for many years.
Today, a qualified midwife, a correct early diagnosis, a course of antibiotics and a visit to what would be her local NHS University College Hospital on Euston Road just walking distance from her London home would have averted that tragic outcome.
Having been closely involved in the Maternal Mortality Campaign from 2008 that resulted in a change in international political will and funding to save women’s lives around the world and a drop of 44% in the number of maternal deaths, I can tell you that it was the voices of women standing up for their rights that made the greatest difference. The bittersweet truth of this is that many of us learned that our voices count thanks to the frontrunners like Mary Wollstonecraft.
The World Health Organisation reports that today – every day – approximately 830 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth, and that 99% of these deaths occur in developing countries. Where there are deaths in highly developed countries it is sadly likely for the same reasons – where women fail to access affordable skilled maternity care before, during and after childbirth. It is the women in the poorer communities who are at greatest risk.
If we are to learn anything from Mary Wollstonecraft’s fierce independence and her good heartedness to other women (and furthermore noting her daughter Mary Shelley’s belief in the potential of science to help humankind) then we need to continue to explore ways to prevent women dying in pregnancy and childbirth, and protect women and babies from the causes and consequences of premature birth.
We must also value the most vulnerable women around the world enough to deliver quality healthcare and education opportunity to unlock their potential. Let’s not lose any more through ignorance and lack of medical care, nor indeed to truly honour Mary Wollstonecraft’s legacy through denying women their full rights and choice over their own bodies and lives.
For more information about women’s organisations that work to reduce maternal mortality
Every Mother Counts (USA organisation working globally)
World Health Organisation
http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/maternal-mortality
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