About 12 years ago I read a book called "Medicine in the Age of Pain". It was about medical practices in the 1700's before the discovery of opiates and anesthetics.

Can you imagine being operated on, without anesthetic?

Plus, no antibiotics and no germ theory. So, filthy conditions and infections almost certain without cauterization of most wounds.

Lots of women died in childbirth. Particularly the first time.

If you didn't die, the risk of infection was high. Infection, untreatable STD's, and scarring often led to infertility.

For women who survived, each pregnancy was was a role of the dice. If you survived there was still a good chance of becoming infertile. As a bonus, the child mortality rate meant that about 48% of all babies born, died before the age of five.

Meaning, if you had four babies two of them were probably going to die before the age of five. In a lot of tribal societies children don’t even get a “real” name until the age of five. Because, if you make it to five you are probably going to survive to adulthood.

Why do you think men in the Bible had "concubines" when their wives were "barren". This used to be pretty common.

Only a relative handful of women are "super breeders" and have over 10 children in premodern societies. It's why we are all descended from only 7 "Eves".

There were plenty of others, but these seven produced so many children around 75Kya, during a near extinction event for us, that their bloodlines swamped all the others out of the population.

We ALL carry a mix of those seven sets of mitochondrial DNA because those women were pregnant and had kids their whole lives. Without dying or becoming infertile.

Fertility is not guaranteed in premodern societies. In some if them, the consequences of failing to conceive were dire. In some, girls are allowed to marry only after they have had a baby and proven their ability to produce children.

If you go back into the Paleolithic, the time of the “Venus” figurines, female fertility was deified and revered. The “Venus” cult was probably the earliest form of “worship” and it seems to have been widespread across Europe.

Women prayed for children, for the ability to conceive. Everyone revered the pregnant “Goddess”. The miracle of a woman producing life and a next generation.

We still see echoes of this to this day.