Was it really though?

Have you also noted that the various hunter gatherers weren't laying down on their backs...

Also don't forget that in the west at least, alot of mortality was from the doctor playing with corpses then going on to assist a birth without washing their hands...

They actually destroyed the guy who criticised this & told them they must wash their hands, it took over a century before they took notice of what he said.

I doubt that mortality was actually through the roof until we brought in the "experts." To echo what Sandor already mentioned - look up Semmelweis.

I do think that most areas are lacking in true experts, though. Until relatively recently, there would have been women in the communities who had attended many births and learned from generations of others.

So it's worth finding a really good midwife.

Although I’m sure childbirth deaths were higher, I don’t think it was as big of a factor as you may expect. Things like lack of antibiotics & god forbid I say but also lack of vaccinations killed a lot of young children

There are a myriad of things we now have that folks in the past didn’t