Replication Files for The Role of Deaths Following Childbirth in Sex Differences in Mortality

In historical populations, female death rates often exceed male death rates during the reproductive ages. However, the mortality resulting from childbearing may not have been the only cause of excess female mortality during the childbearing ages. This study expands on work by Roger Schofield and his colleagues in the Cambridge Group by re-examining mortality after childbirth in the Cambridge Group Family Reconstitutions. In Part 1, a new application of event history methods is used to focus on excess mortality in the months following a birth. Unlike previous methods, which assume that background mortality of wives and husbands was the same, we can now compare maternal and paternal mortality. The results indicate that female mortality was higher than male mortality even when deaths following childbirth are removed. Part 2 explores the determinants of maternal deaths in the puerperal period. Deaths of new mothers rose when their husbands and children were more likely to die, but the risks of death for new mothers were four or five times higher than the risks for other married adults. These results highlight the extraordinary vulnerability of mothers in the weeks following a birth. <br>