Are the Maesters responsible for the incredibly small Great Houses?
So think about it, by the time the story is happening, the Starks, the Tullys, the Arryns, the Baratheons, and the Martells are reduced to single threads. The Starks are all descendent from Rickard with only Ned's kids carrying the line, the Tully's are all descendent from Hoster's parents with only Edmure carrying the line, the Baratheons are all descendants from Steffon presuming Hurbard, the guy Stannis mentioned once, didn't carry on his line and so on. Only the Lannisters and the Tyrells se
AL those woman and more died during childbirth. But if you take them as a percentage of total female characters in GRRM's world, very less. Considering that all didn't die in the same age. Over years. Lots of diseases, war's, grief etc.
And not all those childbirth deaths are from childbirth. Like how Domeric Bolton didn't die from a stomach ache. Fir example, I have a personal crackpot that Joanna was finished off by Cersei to hide her relationship with Jaime or by Tywin after he found ou