Death by Childbirth/Literature

In The Bible, Jacob's favorite wife Rachel died giving birth to Benjamin.
In The Roman Mysteries Flavia Gemina's mother died giving birth to her. Also, in The Slavegirl of Jerusalem the older sister of one of the main characters dies giving birth to twins.
In Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts novels, this is how Gaunt's mother died (and half of why he was an orphan, necessary for being a commissiar.)
- In Ghostmaker Corbec recounts how his mother had nearly died in childbirth and how Dorden, as a young medic, had saved her.
In the V. C. Andrews novel Heaven, Heaven's mother Leigh died giving birth to her. This causes Luke, Leigh's husband, to resent Heaven for "killing" the woman he loved. The circumstances of her conception (Leigh was raped by her stepfather) don't help much either.
- Lucietta Adare succumbs to this in My Sweet Audrina when she gives birth to the title character's sister Sylvia at only six months pregnant. Not helped by the fact that she was drinking heavily while pregnant, and that Damian was beating her.
In Jean M Auel's Earth's Children series, Thonolan goes mad with grief after he loses his wife Jetamio to childbirth.
Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden: Technically, Lilias Craven died from falling out of a tree. The fall also triggered early labor, and Lillias was barely able to give birth to Colin right before she died.
Harry's mother in The Dresden Files, although it is later revealed that this was the result of a curse. . . A bad luck curse, to be specific. It was the usual medical nastiness that actually did her in; the curse just brought that on.
In Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist, Oliver's mother Agnes Fleeming died after giving birth to him, as the end to a huge Break the Cutie process.
- Also implied in the case of David's Ill Girl mother Clara in David Copperfield. And his unnamed baby half-brother died, too.
In Frank Herbert's Dune, the death of Paul Atreides' Fremen wife and legal concubine Chani is the gravity point for half the book, before it actually happened. She dies during the birth of their second and third children, Leto Atreides II (not to be confused with Leto II, their unfortunate older brother, who was killed in a Harkonnen raid) and Ghanima. Chani's death is known to Paul and others via prescience (Face-dancers actively try to profit from this, by offering Paul the chance / compromise / devil's bargain to clone Chani, which he just barely manages to refuse). This death is caused, or at the very least escalated, by the fact that Princess Irulan (Paul's legal wife, daughter of the deposed emperor, and Bene Gesserit, to name just a few) has been feeding Chani contraceptives for some 12 years for rather obvious political reasons (and because the Bene Gesserit did not want their millenia-long genetic project getting contaminated by the wildcard that was Chani's bloodline, and would have liked to ensure that Paul had children with someone more suitable, like Irulan, whom they could manipulate). According to Paul, Chani's death during childbirth was far less painful and cruel compared to her possible future fates had she survived.
In The Eyes of the Dragon, a short fantasy novel by Stephen King, the queen survives a relatively difficult first birth. The second birth is extremely easy—until the midwife, on orders from court magician and Big Bad Flagg, makes a small incision that causes the queen to bleed to death, unknown to anyone. The younger son blames himself for his mother's death.
Used in both Daenerys' and Tyrion's backstories in A Song of Ice and Fire; in both cases, it's justified by a particularly difficult birth (Dany was born as the family was fleeing from Robert Baratheon's assassins, and Tyrion's deformities lead to complications in Joanna's labor.) Aside from this, it doesn't come up much, though it's mentioned as being a concern. Westeros' technology is at a medieval level, and it's fairly realistic.
- Also, it was hinted that Lyanna Stark might have died in childbirth. The bloody bed in Ned's fever dreams in Game of Thrones is used to refer to a child birth bed elsewhere in the books. Of course, this comes up in certain theories about Jon Snow's parents and his Secret Legacy.
- Catelyn Stark's mother Minisa Whent died this way.
- In a non-back story variation, Dalla also dies this way. In the middle of a battle, no less.
The book series Dragonriders of Pern includes seven births: One is normal, two aren't described (but we know they didn't kill the mothers, as they do appear later), two almost kill the mothers and two do kill the mothers. Fewer than half are "normal".
- Somewhat averted by the rediscovery of modern medical knowledge during All The Weyrs Of Pern. The younger generation of Pernese produce numerous children with no problems mentioned.
- Also, one of the deaths was hardly "accidental", as Lord Fax effectively raped Lady Gemma into premature labor, with the intention of killing her in childbirth. He's then goaded into renouncing Ruatha in favor of her issue, giving Lessa the opportunity to arrange a duel in which he's killed. To Lessa's chagrin, Gemma does give live birth despite dying, and the resulting boy, Jaxom, becomes crucial to Pern's future.
- This was the fate of Larna, the mother of weyrleader F'lar. This fact is not revealed until toward the end of the series, when The Masterharper of Pern shows the life story of Masterharper Robinton and fills in many story gaps. (F'lar's father, F'lon, was the Masterharper's best boyhood friend.)
  - In the same book, F'lon mentions that his own mother died giving birth to him.
In the book Wicked, Elphaba's mother dies after giving birth to the girls' younger brother, Shell. In the play, she dies while giving birth to her younger sister Nessarose, thanks to severe birth defects and poisoning.
The first book in the Old Kingdom trilogy opens with the protagonist Sabriel's mother dying giving birth to her.
Done with the main character "Amir" in The Kite Runner. However his dad doesn't blame him for it at all.
From the Corner of His Eye by Dean Koontz takes it to ridiculous levels of tragedy. The lovely strictly catholic teenage girl gets horribly raped by the antagonist — who stupidly thinks they're roleplaying — and hides the pregnancy from her family until she gets a brain aneurysm from all the wrapping up her stomach and dies horribly giving birth to a kid who gets adopted by her sister in a show of bottomless compassion. And that's just the beginning. . .
Mrs. Richard F. Schiller of Lolita dies in childbirth. Of course, it's not until the end of the book that one learns that she is actually the titular character, Dolores "Lolita" Haze..
Voldemort's mother, Merope Gaunt, in Harry Potter. It's noted that she could have saved herself with magic, but after her husband left her she basically wanted to die, leaving Voldemort to be raised at a Muggle orphanage.
In War and Peace, the little princess dies giving birth to Prince Andrei's only son.
Cathy I in Wuthering Heights dies just after giving birth to Cathy II, having been severely weakened by Brain Fever, though this isn't played for gothic family romance laughs. Interestingly, Wuthering Heights was (famously) not written by a man, but rather a motherless woman herself.
Quite possibly because Witches also act as Midwives this has not yet happened in a Discworld novel, although Lady Sybil Vimes came close in Night Watch and Rincewind's mother is said (in defiance of all logic) to have run away before he was born.
- And don't forget Granny Weatherwax making a difficult decision (because she couldn't expect anyone else to make it) at the start of Carpe Jugulum.
In Terry Pratchett's Nation, Daphne's mother dies giving birth. Her father's reaction to this is part of the reason for her being stuck on the island, and her dealing with it is a part of the plot, dealt with in a very touching scene.
In Robin McKinley's Beauty and her "The Twelve Dancing Princesses", the heroines are motherless because their mother died in childbirth; in both cases, the baby also died. The author used this trope again in The Hero and The Crown—Aerinha's mother was said to have "turned her face to the wall and died," upon giving birth to a girl instead of a boy.
The title character in Astrid Lindgren's Mio, my Mio was placed at an orphanage as a baby after his mother died at childbirth. This was common practice in Lindgren's native Sweden in the early 20th century, due to the idea that a man couldn't raise children without the help of a woman. Mio's adoptive parents wanted a girl, but there were only boys available, making him an unwanted adopted child. Lucky for Mio, his real father has been searching for him ever since his birth, and finally finds him and brings him home to the Land of Faraway, where the father is king. The book gives a beautiful description of parent and child being separated when the child is an infant and reunited later, likely inspired by the fact that Lindgren herself had to place her firstborn child in foster care during his first years of life.
Breaking Dawn. Somewhat subverted because Bella survives to Renesmee's birth, by being turned into a vampire.
Used twice in One Hundred Years of Solitude. Little Remedios, Colonel Aureliano Buendía's teenaged wife, dies when her already risky pregnancy with twins takes a turn for the worse; everyone is deeply saddened, since she had endeared herself to everyone in the few years she spent with them. Later, Amaranta Úrsula perishes after she gives birth to the last Aureliano... the son of her nephew and lover Aureliano Babilonia Buendía. Then Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies.
In CS Lewis's Till We Have Faces, a retelling of Psyche and Cupid, the death of Psyche's mother in childbirth opens the way to Orual's being her mother figure. Rather much so.
In The Shadow of the Wind, Julian Carax, author of the eponymous book, has a Despair Event Horizon after his lover dies in childbirth (the child dies also). He never knew that the reason her family allowed her to die was because she was his sister.
Miriel in Tolkien's Silmarillion dies of weariness after giving birth to her son Fëanor, saying "[never] again shall I bear child; for strength that would have nourished the life of many has gone forth into Fëanor." (Indeed.)
In James Swallow's Warhammer 40000 Blood Angels novel Deus Sanguinius, after Inquisitor Stele attacked Rafen's mind to drive him to suicide, Rafen remembers all the deaths in his life. It starts with his mother, dead in childbirth. (Presumably from his younger brother Arkio, though it could be another child, or even Rafen, with Arkio as a half-brother.)
In the first Warrior Cats series, Silverstream dies while giving birth to her kits, causing much grief for her mate and the medicine cat who failed to save her.
In Outcast of Redwall, Bluefen dies after giving birth to Veil Sixclaw, the title character.
The protagonist of Robert Heinlein's I Will Fear No Evil dies this way.
- An especially interesting case, as the protagonist was male (at least in mind and spirit), possibly the only reverse gender example of this trope.
- Actually, it happens to a Mister Seahorse at the end of Tim Powers' The Stress of Her Regard also, due to post-operative infection from the C-section.
In "The Last Letter Home", the final book of Vilhelm Moberg's "Emigrants" suite, Kristina has a miscarriage and is told by a doctor that if she ever gets pregnant again it will lead to her death. A few months later she dies from another miscarriage.
The War World series has a lot of this, as childbirth is even more difficult on thin-aired Haven than on Earth, and breeding is an important theme of the series.
Paul Sheldon in Misery had wanted to kill off the title character of his romance novel series in this way, but Annie Wilkes had other ideas and demanded a Retcon at shotgun-point.
The fate of a main character in Ann Marie Mac Donald's Fall on Your Knees...The father was her own father, no less.
In The Whitby Witches trilogy by Robin Jarvis, the goblin-like aufwaders have been all but wiped out by a curse which causes any female aufwader who becomes pregnant to fall fatally ill, usually within the first three months of conception. Even those who carry a pregnancy to term do so in vain, as the child almost invariably dies with its mother. The only exception to this rule is a young female named Nelda who, after becoming the only aufwader born since the laying of the curse to survive birth, later gives birth to the first baby born after the curse is lifted.
- It's much worse than "fall fatally ill". All the blood in their veins turns to brine.
In Hex and the City, Merlin reveals that he'd torn his way out of his mother's womb in his haste to be born. As she was part of a Dark Age Satanic cult and trying to produce the Antichrist, it's hard to work up much sympathy for her demise.
Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms ends with the protagonist Henry's lover Catherine dying in childbirth. The child is stillborn.
The Ill Girl Melanie Wilkes in Gone with the Wind dies after a miscarriage. Giving birth to her first child, her and Leslie's son Beau, already almost killed her.
Mothers of both Damien Thorn Sr. and Jr.. For extra delicacy, the former's mother was a jackal and he didn't have an navel. Work it out.
In The Stone Dance of the Chameleon, Carnelian's mother died giving birth to him.
Tom's wife in the first chapter (after the prologue, that is) of The Pillars of the Earth.
In Naamah's Curse by Jacqueline Carey, it is revealed that Queen Jehanne died giving birth to a daughter.
Lives of the Mayfair Witches: Most women who sleep with a male Taltos end up like this, either when they violently miscarry or when the child (who grows to the size of an adult within hours) tears its way out of their womb. Ow, ow, ow.
In some adaptations of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge's Dead Little Sister Fan and/or his mother suffered this, which could explain the implied distant relationship between young Ebenezer and his father. The Alistair Sims film includes the heartwrenching scene of Fan's death. The book, however, does not mention the circumstances surrounding the death of either. A scene where Fred's wife knows an old favorite tune of Fan's suggests that she survived into Fred's childhood; and Fan's existence in the first place implies that if Scrooge's mother did die giving birth to him, his father must have remarried.
Alanna and Thom's mother in Song of the Lioness died giving birth to them. Their father was angry that despite her having the Gift, the magic wasn't enough to save her and thus forbid his children to ever using magic. Her death was implied to have also caused her husband to neglect his two children.
General Stanton's wife from Old Tin Sorrows succumbed to this trope shortly after giving birth to their daughter, Jennifer. Subverted in that the insanely-jealous General had actually engineered her demise, drugging her with an anti-coagulant and blaming the "mistake" on her physician.
Almost happens to Anne twice in the Anne of Green Gables series. Once, with her first child, in which the baby died as a result of being premature. And once that was only revealed in backstory, while giving birth to her sixth child and youngest son, Shirley.
This is how Anna and Caleb's mother died in Sarah, Plain and Tall:

Mama died the next morning [after he was born]. That was the worst thing about Caleb. "Isn't he beautiful, Anna?" Her last words to me.

Yeerks in Animorphs, due to Bizarre Alien Biology, always die in the act of reproduction. Three Yeerks join together and then split into hundreds of offspring. One wonders why individuals would choose to do this.
Gothic novels in Jane Austen's time used it with such abandon as to inspire the opening quote from Northanger Abbey.
Appears to have been the case with the Kid in Blood Meridian.
In John Moore's Slay and Rescue, mothers of both Prince Charming and the three female protagonists died in childbirth. Lampshaded:

Princess Aurora: Is childbirth as dangerous as all that?

Princess Ann: [The wizard] Mandelbaum says it's because royal families can afford physicians and the very best medical care. Consequently, they die like flies.

Stranger in A Strange Land has an example that's even darker than usual: Mike is the product of an illegitimate liaison, and when his mother died in childbirth, his mother's husband killed first the father and then himself.
The last empress of Melniboné "died bringing her sole thin-blooded issue into the world", as if Elric's Doom Magnet sundae needed that cherry on top.
The Kantri in Tales of Kolmar have tremendous clawed hands with very limited dexterity. It's mentioned that consequently, when a child is turned the wrong way in the womb the results are disastrous — a birth sister might reach in to try and turn the baby, but usually mother and child both die. This situation comes up in Song In The Silence; fortunately there's a human on hand who has no claws and delivers the child with no harm to either, though she's horribly burned and nearly dies herself.
In Catherine Anderson's Kendrick/Coulter/Harrigan series, Harrigan matriarch Emily died from complications during labor and required an emergency c-section to save youngest child Samantha. While the family never blamed Samantha for it,Samantha blamed herself...and so did her big brother Clint, who was playing outside at the time and didn't realize why his mother was calling for help until it was too late.
- This happens to a pregnant Rottweiler in My Sunshine. Her owners made the mistake of leaving her alone to go to work, and the dog went into a messy and complicated labor that ultimately took her life. Isaiah was able to save her puppies, though, and he and Laura took on the task of bottle-feeding them until they were big enough to eat on their own.
In the Christian book Treasures of the Snow by Patricia St. John, Annette and Daniel Burnier's mother died giving birth to the latter. He's not blamed for it, and instead his older sister is extremely protective of him.
The inverse happens in Sidney Sheldon's A Stranger in the Mirror (a dramatized fictional account of Groucho Marx's relationship with Erin Fleming). Heroine Josephine Czinski's mother has serious complications giving birth to her and when the nurses come out to tell her father about this, he suffers a fatal heart attack. Josephine and her mother survive, but her mother goes insane thinking that she and her daughter were responsible for the man's death, and later becomes a religious zealot who abuses her daughter in order to cleans them both of their "sin."
In the American Girls Collection, Josefina's birthday story has mean old nanny goat Florecita succumb to this, with Josefina arriving just in time to see her breathe her last. Josefina takes it upon herself to care for the baby, whom she names Sombrita.

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