Medieval authors, such as Hildegard of Bingen, divided the human lifespan into different stages. During early childhood, the lives of boys and girls did not differ much, which changed when the children reached an age of about seven years. Then, the girls had to help their mother in the household, with caring for their younger siblings and other tasks in order to be prepared for their future life as a wife and mother. The daughters of higher-ranking and noble families were also raised in the households, if they were not given to the hands of a monastery as a young girl, as happened to Hildegard.

Before they married, women were under the parental power of their father, which meant he was responsible for them and they had to obey. After getting married, the power was transferred to the husband. The marriage age of a woman was connected to age. However, this largely differed according to the status and origin of the girls and noble women were mostly married earlier than daughters from poorer families. Although love was a popular subject in lyrics and epics of the 12th century, most marriages – particularly in the upper classes of society – were concluded from political and financial points of view.

At an age where other girls went before the altar in order to marry a man, Hildegard like many other girls who took the cloth, took the profession and married her heavenly groom. For a woman who did not live a life in a religious community, marriage was the only accepted condition. During the High Middle Ages, the Church declared marriage as a sacrament which gave it widespread validation.

The stage of maturity classified married women who had already become mothers. Hildegard also extensively discussed the topic of pregnancy and birth in Causae et Curae and gives advice in cases of a difficult birth. Although there are no figures available concerning the mortality rate, it can be assumed that a pregnancy always meant a high risk to the mother. A Caesarean was only done after the mother died. The risk of infant mortality was very high up to the age of 10. It is estimated that only half of the people of the same age group reached adult stage. As men usually only married when they were financially secure, there was often a big age gap between the spouses, and it was not seldom that the wife, if she survived the time of puerperium, became a widow a short time after that. Noblewomen could enter a monastery or convent when they were widows, which was usually not an option for poorer women with small children. They usually married again in order to avoid being alone when they were older.