Pregnancy, childbirth, and the deification of the women who died in childbirth

texts from the Florentine Codex, Book VI, Folos 128v - 143v.

Resumen

In the militaristic theocracy of the Aztecs the glories of battle were not limited to men alone. Every woman brought to bed with child was looked upon as warrior going into battle, and like the warrior who achieved glory, whether he was captor or captive, so it was with a woman. If she waged her battle successfully and brought her child into the world, her glory was the glory of motherhood, the prize of her battle the child. If not, if she succumbed in her battle with the child still captive in her womb, hers was the noble death of the warrior and she, like he, went to heaven, to the House of the Sun.