Women in Britain

Today, pregnancy and childbirth have become the least common threats to women. Presently, the average number of maternal deaths per day has dropped to about one per week. High standards of obstetric care, drugs such as sulfonamides and penicillin, blood transfusions, and good health all contribute to the intense decline in maternal mortality. A higher standard of living, as well as more scrupulous public health and sanitation regulations, also promote a decrease in the prevalence of infections.

Another main threat to women's health in the Victorian period dealt with the widespread epidemics that ran rampant during the nineteenth century. These contagious infectious diseases caused prevalent illness and death throughout the world, affecting women as well as home life. Women became especially at risk of contracting these diseases since they were in charge of domestic work. Therefore they were more commonly exposed to the source of infection, such as livestock, water sources, sewage sources, as well as becoming exposed to infected persons by caring for them in the home. These diseases included cholera, tuberculosis, influenza, and typhoid.

One of the most prominent diseases that affected Victorian women was known as cholera. Cholera is an acute diarrheal disease that usually occurs in conjunction with vomiting, which results in severe dehydration. The bacteria spreads by fecal-oral transmission which generally happens from contaminated water supplies and food.

Three extensive pandemics occurred during the Victorian period that led to the death of millions of people, beginning in 1848 with the arrival of cholera to Europe from India.It has now been determined that unsatisfactory sanitary conditions were needed to support the cholera outbreaks in Europe.

The main sources of contamination include leaking sewage tanks and food tainted from infected persons handling it. Improvements in public health measures, such as the British Sanitary Act of 1866, and protected water supplies and sewage disposal assisted in eliminating the frequency of the infections.

4.3 Women's health today

Today, many of the infectious illnesses that wrecked havoc on the lives of the Victorians do not effect the current population nearly as severely, if at all. Since the nineteenth century, the causes of the diseases have been found, isolated, and studied. The development of antibiotics became pivotal in treating these diseases, as well as determining the proper treatment once the pathogen of the diseases had been discovered. An improved standard of living and sanitation also played a huge part in helping to alleviate the frequency of the diseases, as well as better personal hygiene, improved housing and diets, and public health interventions.

Since the development of antibiotics, advances in medicine, and an improved standard of living, women today face much different medical obstacles than those of the Victorian period. Infections and communicable diseases no longer affect the population as they did in the past, which leaves an entirely different group of health problems for women in today's society. The present problems in medicine focus more on genetic disposition in addition to the effects of poor habits accumulated by women, such as smoking, drugs, high cholesterol, and obesity.

Heart disease currently is the number one cause of death of women, taking the lives of more than 500,000 women a year. Women who endure a heart attack are more likely than men to die from a heart attack and are oftentimes more difficult to diagnose than men. Women experience angina, or chest pain, more often before a heart attack, but other symptoms occur that differ from those that happen in men. Women regularly have pain in the neck, jaw, arms, or back as well as the chest, which is frequently confused with ulcers, gallbladder disease, or hiatal hernias. While some risk of heart disease lies in genetic disposition to the disease, many other factors increase the risk of developing heart disease. These factors include the poor habits previously mentioned as well as falling estrogen levels after menopause, low socioeconomic status, and use of oral contraceptives for an extended period of time.

Cancer falls in as the second leading cause of death among women. Although much attention is focused on cancer of the reproductive system, lung cancer actually accounts as the most prominent cancer in women, killing 46,000 women a year. This is largely due to the higher rates of smoking by women, as well as the effects of second hand smoke. Although early detection can lead to effective surgery, the survival rate for lung cancer states that only thirteen percent of all individuals diagnosed live five years beyond the diagnosis. Breast cancer also finds itself as a leading killer of women today. Each year, 180,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer, and 46,000 die from complications.While family history and irregularities in the menstrual cycle at an early age are the main risk factors, others include excess weight, excessive alcohol consumption, a high fat diet, and vitamin A deficiency. Early detection and early treatment appear to be the best chance for a cure, and reducing the risk of cancer by avoiding the risks continue to be the best preventative plan.

While progression in science and in living conditions have helped to abate the health problems of the past, womenкs health issues continue to play an important role in society. Since half of the population as well as the workforce consist of women, their health should have as much precedence as the health of men. Not only should society as a whole consider women's health issues as significant as men's health issues, but the public should also bear in mind that the major health concerns of the time reflect the society in which they live. By trying to eliminate some of the risk factors and causes for prevalent diseases and illnesses, society alone could help to solve chronic health problems along with scientific research. By focusing on the causes as well as the effects of particular illnesses on women, the issues faced in women's health today could also become a thing of the past.

4.4 Health of pregnant women

4.4.1 Victorian Era