It's not, technically. It's a normal process, and obviously required (still) to bring a baby to term. It's still statistically more dangerous than many recognised illnesses, with permanent changes to the woman's physique afterwards.
> > Also where has this medically risky HQ concept
come from?
> All the references to brave women doing this
important and risky HQ for the good of the clan.
Not mention real world.
For a New World mythic example of people knowing the risks of childbirth, try the Aztecs. They believed that the Sun was escorted across the sky by two groups of the departed. One group, the souls of warriors of Huitzilopochtli (Hummingbird on the Left) who had died in battle, would escort the sun to its setting. The second set, souls of women who had died in childbirth, brought the sun to its zenith. This was meant to acknowledge the bravery of women in bringing new warriors into the world.
There's nothing that can be done to get around the fact that getting the big heads (that we've ended up selecting in evolutionary terms) out into the world is painful and sometimes fatal process.
Possible complications include anal fistulae, diabetes, enlarged fibroids, prolapsed uterus, haemorrhage, tearing of tissue, etc. Another common consequence included losing teeth (1/pregnancy was considered the norm).
Evolution won't have anything to do with the Gloranthan setting, but unless you wish to posit either teeny heads on Gloranthan babies, or a much more elastic vagina in the average Gloranthan woman, you're still stuck with the risk. And I don't think that it would be a good idea to reduce the risk, anyway. Too much roleplaying can be had from the situation.
> > I can tell you that modern medicine has resulted
in severe iatrogenesis of the birthing process.
For a fascinating exposition on that, try Mal(e)practice, by Robert Mendelsohn, MD (Contemporary Books, 1981), for view that probably hasn't changed much.
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