Emily Chan
In the mid-19th century, a Hungarian physician named Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis made an important, life-saving discovery.
He figured out that handwashing—a concept that we still put into practice each and every day—could drastically reduce the spread of puerperal fever, a common and deadly disease that affected women who had recently given birth.
Although he presented clear and compelling evidence, his findings were met with harsh resistance from the medical community at the time.
Ultimately, Semmelweis was committed to an asylum, where he died. Tragically, his work was not accepted until after his death, laying the foundation for modern antiseptic procedures.
During the mid-19th century, about five in 1,000 women died in at-home births or deliveries performed by midwives.
However, the maternal death rate in the best maternity hospitals in Europe and America was often 10 to 20 times higher. The cause of all these deaths was puerperal fever, also known as childbed fever.
The disease was devastating and progressed rapidly, producing raging fevers, lower abdominal pain, and bad-smelling pus from the birth canal. This all happened within 24 hours of the baby’s birth.
Back then, medical students and doctors at these hospitals started their days performing autopsies on women who had recently died from childbed fever. Of course, these examinations were done without wearing gloves. Afterward, they headed over to the maternity wards to assist women in labor.
At the Vienna General Hospital, Dr. Semmelweis ran the less desirable division of obstetrics in 1846. He was put into the position due to his background and religion. Childbed fever was killing almost a third of his patients, and he vowed to get down to the bottom of this medical mystery.
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