The Birthing Bed is a Battlefield in House of the Dragon

HBO’s record-breaking fantasy series, Game of Thrones, went out of its way to make viewers dread Westerosi wedding ceremonies as much as possible, with the Red Wedding massacre and Joffrey’s assassination being the most notable. Similarly, House of the Dragon, has conditioned its viewers to expect a birthing scene to result in nothing but tragedy.

(Rhaenyra Targaryen cradling her stillborn daughter)

In the very first episode we are treated to a nearly unwatchable cesarean scene in which the Queen Aemma Arryn has her baby torn from her womb in a brutal, archaic procedure. The scene was so graphic that show runner Ryan Condal had to address it in a Vanity Fair interview, where he claims that the scene was not meant to be gratuitous, and its graphic nature was meant to enforce the burden women had to bear in Medieval time periods. “That was a very dangerous place to be… Any slight complication, anything could lead to very tragic consequences for the child and the mother. We wanted to dramatize that.”

(Aemma Arryn's cesarean procedure)

Queen Aemma herself delivers a line earlier in the episode that reinforces this idea. Her daughter, Princess Rhaenyra rejects traditional ideals and wishes to serve the realm as a knight, seeking glory on the battlefield. Aemma stresses to her daughter that men and women play different roles in their society and thus bear different burdens. She says, “This discomfort is how we serve the realm… The child bed is our battlefield. We must learn to face it with a stiff lip.” This line mirrors one from Martin’s novels, coming from Randyll Tarly in A Feast for Crows. “The gods made men to fight, and women to bear children. A woman’s war is in the birthing bed.” And though Queen Aemma and Randyll Tarly doubtlessly have wildly differing philosophies, they nonetheless share the common belief that a man’s courage and strength is shown in their combat record while a woman’s is displayed through their effectiveness at producing children and, in the case of nobles, heirs.

Accordingly, House of the Dragon emphasizes this concept through its editing, cross cutting between the violence of the tourney where men are butchering each other to death, and the horrors of the birthing bed, where maesters and midwives are butchering the queen to death. Unfortunately, just as Daemon’s victory over Criston Cole is short-lived, so is Aemma’s sacrifice as her baby falls ill and dies shortly after.

(Baby Baelon Targaryen's funeral)

Having set the precedent for child labor tragedies, Condal and his team decide to put Laena Velaryon in the exact same position. When the healers of Pentos are unable to get the child out of her, they give her husband Daemon the exact same ultimatum: let her bleed out naturally or remove the babe via blade. After overhearing this conversation, Laena decides to take matters into her own hands and die the death of a dragon rider, as she’s always wanted. The tragedy in this moment is that Laena, being a woman in this archaic society, is viewed as simply a child birthing machine and thus when she struggles to deliver on that front, the men surrounding her assume her fate is theirs to decide. In both cases, the maesters and the healers turn to the women’s husbands to choose what will be done with their wives. While Viserys makes the difficult choice, Laena does not give the men around her a say in the matter. She kicks off her midwives and stumbles her way to her dragon, Vhagar, whom she orders to kill her with dragon fire. By taking her death into her own hands, Laena shows agency for the first time in the series. She wishes to die a dragon rider’s death, and that’s exactly what she chooses to do.

(Laena Velaryon's final moments)

The final birthing catastrophe takes place in the season finale after Rhaenyra learns of her father’s death and Aegon’s ascension. Overwhelmed and distraught, Rhaenyra suffers a stress-induced, premature birth. The editors intercut her agony with the shrieking of her dragon, Syrax, to emphasize the battle she’s fighting. Meanwhile, just one scene prior, Daemon is laying plans for their future war, threatening the present kingsguard into subservience. Once again, viewers are given parallel scenes to enforce the roles of women and men in this society, and their respective battlefields. Rhaenyra literally reaches inside her and rips the incubating infant from her womb to end the suffering, reflecting her rejection of the traditional gender roles into which society has forced her.

(Rhaenyra Targaryen's reaction to her son's death)

And in the final shot of the entire season, when Rhaenyra learns of her son’s (Lucerys) death, she clutches her stomach and winces as though experiencing her miscarriage all over again. Notably, this moment marks her transformation from a level-headed ruler open to the idea of making peace with Aegon’s Greens into a vindictive queen hellbent on mercilessly conquering her enemies. So, when she finally turns to the camera, the part of Rhaenyra that wished to respect the societal norms for the sake of peace and unity is dead. The horrors of this world and the toll it has taken on her children have turned Rhaenyra from the Realm’s Delight to the Black Queen.