Historical Background
The nineteenth century in Europe was composed of two main types of deliveries. Mothers of the middle and upper classes usually gave birth in their homes accompanied by their family physician and a midwife. Women usually only went to a hospital to give birth if they had complications, were impoverished, or were birthing an illegitimate child. These women died at a shocking rate of 25 to 30 percent. The women often died from diseases they contracted during their stay at the hospital, such as puerperal fever and other gynecological diseases.
The Devastating Disease
Puerperal fever, also called childbed fever, was an infection of the female reproductive organs. It was contracted during or shortly after delivery and its symptoms progressed quickly. This acute disease was caused when bacteria entered the vaginal tract during childbirth. The bacteria caused what is now called sepsis or septicemia--blood poisoning. Victims of this infection suffered a high fever, swollen abdomen, and multiple abscesses at the site of infection and along the body.
Allgemeine Krankenhaus
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It was a well-known fact that women that delivered in the First Division of the Allgemeine Krankenhaus were much more like to die from puerperal fever. In 1847, one out of every six mothers died during their delivery. The women in the Second Division, however, died at a much more reasonable rate of 1.2 percent. Pregnant women would beg to be admitted to the Second Division to avoid the perils of the First, where moans and cries of dying women could be heard throughout the corridors. Some women chose to deliver their babies in the streets rather than give birth in the First Division. Sadly, these deliveries were often safer than being delivered by the physicians in the Allgemeine Krankenhaus.
The doctors and professors were befuddled by the seemingly inexplicable discrepancy between the death rates in the two wards. The only difference between the them was that the First Division was manned by physicians, professors of medicine, and medical students. The Second was attended by midwives and students of midwifery.
At the time Ignaz Semmelweis began working at the Allgemeine Krankenhaus, many of the physicians and students of medicine had access to the morgue of the hospital. They would dissect the bodies of the women who had died from puerperal fever and other diseases before returning to their work in the obstetric wards. There was no system of sanitation between these two areas of the hospital. Many of the same instruments would be used for both autopsies and deliveries and vaginal exams, and doctors seldom washed their hands between the two activities. No one had any idea that they were carrying the disease on their hands; no one knew that the doctors themselves were killing their patients.
The doctors and professors were befuddled by the seemingly inexplicable discrepancy between the death rates in the two wards. The only difference between the them was that the First Division was manned by physicians, professors of medicine, and medical students. The Second was attended by midwives and students of midwifery.
At the time Ignaz Semmelweis began working at the Allgemeine Krankenhaus, many of the physicians and students of medicine had access to the morgue of the hospital. They would dissect the bodies of the women who had died from puerperal fever and other diseases before returning to their work in the obstetric wards. There was no system of sanitation between these two areas of the hospital. Many of the same instruments would be used for both autopsies and deliveries and vaginal exams, and doctors seldom washed their hands between the two activities. No one had any idea that they were carrying the disease on their hands; no one knew that the doctors themselves were killing their patients.