How many women died in childbirth in the 16th and 17th centuries? Far more than today, certainly, but fewer than one might think, for it is the tragedies which generated the most interest, perhaps creating a false impression of a high rate of maternal death in childbirth. The medical reasons for death in childbirth were numerous. They might stem from a condition affecting the state of the mother, such as haemorrhage or eclampsia, or from the impossibility of delivering the foetus, especially after foetal death in utero, with the associated risk of gangrene. Guillemeau relates tales both of women saved from death through prompt delivery when they were haemorrhaging (episodes 10, 11, 12, 13) or suffering from convusions (episode 16) and of women who died from haemorhages (episodes 14 and 15), while Bourgeois also reports the danger to the mother's life of haemorrhage in labour (episode 5) and of a retained and putrifying foetus (episodes 18 and 21).

The death of "Madame", sister-in-law of Louis XIII, in 1627, a few days after she had given birth to the daughter who would become "La Grande Mademoiselle" is one of the most famous example of maternal death after childbirth. It caused a bitter quarrel between the midwife, Louise Bourgeois, and the doctors, each side seeking to blame the other. Medical treatises reveal that both physicians and surgeons feared the death of the mother, and authors advise fellow practitioners to observe great prudence, especially if they are summoned only when a woman is already on the verge of death. All are keen to avoid being blamed for a death in which they have had no part. If an undelivered foetus is still alive after the mother's death, it is considered imperative (in the eyes of Catholics particularly) to deliver it so that it may survive at least long enough to receive the sacrament of baptism. Thus surgeons may be required to perform a caesarean section, as witnessed in illustrations from both the early 16th and 17th centuries.