Definition of "childbed" [child•bed]

• The condition of a woman in the process of giving birth. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Charlotte in childbed; it has turned to a royal daughter whose death meets no divine design, only "inscrutable decrees.""
• "His late wife, "pretty Mrs. Frescheville," had died in childbed on May 22nd, 1653."
• "She died – probably in childbed – in November of next year (1654), and was buried at Petworth with her infant son."