The child mortality rate was equally high among the upper classes, which is why motherhood was a outsourced occupation. The likelihood of death was conceived as such a stressor it might ruin a woman. There are counter examples (parents rearing their own) that we know about precisely because it, being extraordinary, was a topic of conversation.
Your description of daily life is striking. It's also why I like reflecting on our folklore: it is usually very dark, full of fear, sickness and death. I live in Norway, and there are specific supernatural explanations for almost anything: death, malformed babies, rape, incest, abortion, suicide, insanity etc. "hidden" in what is usually presented as rosy fairytales and omens.
The child mortality rate was equally high among the upper classes, which is why motherhood was a outsourced occupation. The likelihood of death was conceived as such a stressor it might ruin a woman. There are counter examples (parents rearing their own) that we know about precisely because it, being extraordinary, was a topic of conversation.
Your description of daily life is striking. It's also why I like reflecting on our folklore: it is usually very dark, full of fear, sickness and death. I live in Norway, and there are specific supernatural explanations for almost anything: death, malformed babies, rape, incest, abortion, suicide, insanity etc. "hidden" in what is usually presented as rosy fairytales and omens.