The reason Stephen has little knowledge of childbirth is because he is gay and has no experience in the field. Sandi is also gay which is why she said that she didn't know why Stephen and herself were in the conversation 😂😂
Sandi used to have a thick New York accent. She was sent to a girls boarding school in England when she was 14 but none of the other girls would talk to her because of her accent, so after 6 weeks of this she decided to change her accent and talk the way she does now. That’s why she talks like she is from a 1950s black and white film. She says when she gets tired she slips back in her New York accent.
I mean, they sort of glossed over it a bit in favour of talking about how it's use predated anaesthetic and stuff, but what you have to remember is that in the 18th century, if the baby's head was too wide for the female's pelvis, it very regularly led to the death of the woman. In fact child birth was one of the leading causes of death amongst women of child-bearing age - I think in 17th century London something like 1 in 40 births lead to the death of the woman, and there were a LOT of pregnancies back then too pre-contraception. Jodi says "how do you heal?" ... That is kind of why these things were somewhat useful - it might've been incredibly painful but cutting away a bit of the bone actually helped promote healing (although it was still very dangerous), as opposed to trying to force the baby through which lead to internal haemorrhaging and infections and stuff which they could not heal. Also, the attitudes to childbirth amongst women themselves was quite different in those days. They didn't really have the option for 'abortions' and, as I said, no viable contraception, so childbirth was much more spiritual than today. If you read diaries of the time, women often expressed a willingness to put themselves through extreme pain in order to create a life and the baby coming out healthy was everything to them. If the woman did pass away, a very real possibility, they genuinely believed that doing so whilst preserving the life of their baby would ensure their place in heaven and they were often celebrated, sometimes to the detriment of the child itself who might end up demonised for "taking the life" of their holy mother. Basically, women viewed childbirth as a form of self-sacrifice in those days, whether that be through extreme pain or actually passing away. How times change, thankfully for the better.
One reason you might think Sandi sounds like a Hogwarts teacher is that she was brought up in New York and only changed her accent when she went to a girls' school in England. So I imagine she only really got taught the formal register.
Sandi actually said that she was being teased for her American accent so she changed it by copying Celia Johnson from Brief Encounter. This is why she sounds so posh.
Remember Johnny Vegas making a joke about cornflakes on Qi, he was astounded too as his dirty joke was true? Never forget this about cornflakes and have a smirk when I see it sold in store! 🇬🇧👵😂
Sandi Toksvig took over Stephen Fry as the host of Q.I. and she is perfect for the role as she's very intelligent. Funny side note. if you google images of her, you'll see she's the spit of Tom Cruise....
Hi Ron & Hermione There is another QI, which talks about early days of operations where people Paid to see who could be the fastest at amputation , it's 7.30 am here in UK Not good time to hear about mini Chainsaws
Rubik's Cube "Although it is widely reported that the Cube was built as a teaching tool to help his students understand 3D objects, his actual purpose was solving the structural problem of moving the parts independently without the entire mechanism falling apart. He did not realise that he had created a puzzle until the first time he scrambled his new Cube and then tried to restore it."
given that the death rate for mother and child was insanely high, a bit of extra risk was probably not seen as that bad. Espedially if doctors genuinely thought they help (which they didn't).
may be cutting through the abdomen and uterus was looked upon as more risky then internally taking some bone off. Pretty much kill or cure choice either way.
Sandi's father has an English mother but her father was the face of Danish national television news for decades - she has been absolutely everywhere including the loft off of the first moon landings from the CapCom (tge control room) during lift off, as a child.
Did you not realise that both Sandy Toksvig and Stephen Fry are gay? The last lady garden Stephen saw was when he was on the way out of one when he was born.
