Chapter 81 The Future
Li San Niang and the others never expected that it would turn out to be such a disgusting yet tragic thing.
"That's my own child, how could I bear to part with him?"
Sister-in-law Li thought that if she had a daughter, she would definitely pamper her like Li's mother and Li San Niang did, and she would marry someone from nearby, so that she would have family support.
"Alas, in the countryside, families who live a hard life often resort to selling their daughters."
Li Ersao herself was from the village. Although she had never seen children being sold in her village since she was a child, she had heard a lot about it.
“Sister-in-law, this kind of thing happens quite often. My father even said that the hunters in the mountains to the north can’t find wives, so they have to trade their hides with poor families down in the mountains. This He Xiaoniang is lucky to have been bought by the aunt next door. At least she’s escaped the wolf’s den.”
Li's mother had more contact with rural families than Li's eldest sister-in-law, and she nodded in agreement with Li's second sister-in-law's words. "What Lan Niang said is true. There are indeed many girls who are sold, but they are all girls who have reached the age of marriage, and they are all sold to families who are truly honest and upright. Unlike this He Xiaoniang, a girl who is only eleven years old. If she were to be married off to Wang Dalang, wouldn't she be just waiting to lose her life?"
Li San Niang knew that such things must be common everywhere, but not every young girl could be as lucky as He Xiao Niang. Although her birth mother did not love her, at least she had the affection of her own brothers, and she also met a kind-hearted aunt who saved her from dying young.
Even if he survived by sheer luck, at such a young age, the way Wang Dalang acted suggested he had fallen into a wolf's den, waiting to be skinned alive and devoured. His life would undoubtedly be worse than death.
The group sighed together, some taking care of their children, others packing up, leaving Li San Niang alone under the shade of a tree, lost in thought.
Two days ago, Li San Niang had an idea in her mind. She felt that she should do something for the women at this time. She could treat the women, help with childbirth, and improve the survival rate of children. But how many people could she save by herself?
We have to make this a big undertaking. The bigger it is, the more people we have in our team, and the more people we can help. We also have to do it well. If we do it well, it can be a continuous cycle.
Because of what Li's mother had just said about He Xiaoniang, Li Sanniang had some thoughts in her mind. Li's mother was a midwife. Midwives delivered babies and came into contact with women and mothers. Every ward had midwives. At this time, most of the women in the backyards spent their lives around childbirth.
After giving birth, you still have to breastfeed and raise the child, which takes up at least twenty years of your life.
After all, people back then weren't like modern people. Modern women still have a lot of choices, and even if they like it, there aren't many families that have five, six, seven, or eight children.
At this time, a girl would marry at sixteen or seventeen after reaching marriageable age. If she married later, she would have to pay more taxes. Even if she started giving birth at seventeen or eighteen, and the slowest case was three children every five years, it would still take fifteen to twenty years to spend on this.
It's rare to see someone as open-minded as Sister-in-law Li and as devoted to his wife as Brother Li. At this time, the prevailing value was still that having many children meant many blessings.
Not to mention Li's mother, a mother-in-law you couldn't find even with a lantern, who never interferes in the affairs between her son and daughter-in-law, and never asks how many children her daughter-in-law wants to have.
Li's mother once told Li San Niang, "As long as your sister-in-law is willing to have children, I will help take care of them. If I am too busy, I will pay for it. If she is not willing to have children, that is a matter between the couple. I do not have a mother-in-law myself, and I do not want to be an annoying mother-in-law. Like your eldest sister-in-law, she has had two sons and does not want to have any more. I think that is good. Having many children is a blessing, and raising them well is an even greater blessing."
Li San Niang could understand the thoughts of people at that time. After all, the living environment was very harsh for people at the bottom of society. It was only during the reign of Emperor Taizong that the Tang Dynasty gradually became less war-torn and more stable. After Emperor Wu ascended the throne, he paid attention to people's livelihood, so people could live and work in peace and contentment, and thus thought about having more children.
However, accidents still happen frequently to people at the bottom of society. In an era where even a cold can be fatal, having more sons is a way for families to cope with risks.
Therefore, if Li San Niang really wanted to improve the living conditions of the women, it would be very difficult. This is a matter of productivity, and it cannot be solved by an obstetrician.
However, if Li San Niang only wanted the women to be able to find someone to see a doctor and take a dose of medicine when they were feeling unwell, instead of having to endure the pain and get through it;
To help women have a smooth delivery if they experience difficulties during childbirth, rather than resulting in the death of both mother and child;
It can help mothers take care of their children more scientifically, reduce the mortality rate of their children, and improve the survival rate of children under five years old, so that their lives can be a little more comfortable. That would be quite good.
Thinking of the child, she thought of the dewdrop. Suddenly, Li San Niang clenched her right fist and punched her left palm. How could she have forgotten about the smallpox vaccine?
Is there also penicillin extract?
Or perhaps Watermelon Frost?
Although my pharmacology knowledge is only so-so, I still know the basic principles. If I try more, will I really be able to succeed?
Any one of these items could truly be the great merit that Li Ersao spoke of!
If we succeed, will we be able to meet Emperor Wu?
Should we really go see Emperor Wu?
Li San Niang shook her head, pushing back the jumbled thoughts in her mind, and began to think again about what to do and how to do it.
However, all of this is contingent on Li San Niang first becoming a basic physician in the alliance, then opening her own practice, and finally becoming one of the most skilled physicians, before progressing step by step.
I still need to write the content for the second lecture, but I'll put it aside for now and talk about it tomorrow.
Li San Niang herself wanted to do things for the women, so she thought of a way to come from the masses and go back to the masses.
That is the use of midwives from among the gossipy relatives!
What are the terms "three aunts and six grandmothers"?
The three types of nuns are Buddhist nuns, Taoist nuns, and fortune tellers.
Actually, it's all related to the religious beliefs of the time. Li San Niang thinks it's better to exclude it. First of all, in order to spread the knowledge in her mind, she made up a lie about being preached to by a Taoist nun. This lie is just a lie, so it's better not to get involved with Taoist nuns or anything like that.
Furthermore, getting involved with religion is not something a mere doctor should or should do!
The six types of women are: matchmaker, sorceress, prostitute, herbalist, and midwife.
"Yapo" means human trafficking, "Meipopo" is obviously a matchmaker who arranges marriages, "Shipo" is related to religious beliefs, and "Qianpo" has another name, "Baomu," which refers to the mothers who manage the women in the brothels of Pingkangfang.
The term "medicine woman" is easy to understand; it refers to someone who sells folk remedies and prepared decoctions to women. However, since the establishment and significant development of the Imperial Medical Bureau, although women can no longer receive medical consultations, they can still purchase prepared decoctions and pills from pharmacies. In addition, the Medical Alliance provides free medical consultations and sells medicines at cost price every year, so medicine women are seen less frequently.
Midwife is easy to talk about; Li's mother is a midwife, in charge of delivering babies for women.
Therefore, thinking about it this way, it's still best to get involved through the midwife.
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