An attempt to estimate the true rate of maternal mortality, sixteenth to eighteenth centuries.

This is an attempt to measure maternal mortality in England from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. Data are from the registers of three Somerset parishes in the West of England. The author attempts to measure maternal mortality firstly by comparing differential mortality of husbands and wives over the first 15 years of marriage. Secondly, he attempts to calculate it through a limited form of family reconstruction. In both cases, an estimate of maternal mortality of between 24.4 and 29.4 per 1,000 baptisms is suggested.