Man-midwifery exposed, or the danger and immorality of employing men in midwifery proved and the remedy for the evil found : addressed to the Society for the Suppression of Vice. / By John Stevens.

  • John Stevens
Date:
[1866]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Man-midwifery exposed, or the danger and immorality of employing men in midwifery proved and the remedy for the evil found : addressed to the Society for the Suppression of Vice. / By John Stevens. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    MOETALITY IN OHILDBIETH. (REPRmTBD FROM THE TIMES, OCTOBER 10, 1865.) SiK,—I beg to place before you a few facts concerning tbe mortality of our women, which, appear to me to have an urgent claim upon the attention of the public, and for which I beg to suggest a remedy, not only simple and effectual, but on other grounds also most desirable. The Eegistrar-General has kindly furnished me with returns of the deaths from puerperal causes among the entire popu- lation of London for the last five years. By the politeness of Mr. Seabrook, the Secretary of the Eoyal Maternity Charity, I have also been furnished with the returns from the practice of that institution for the last 15 years. In the Eoyal Maternity Charity the aggregate numbers for the 15 years have been:—Deliveries, 47,600; deaths from all causes, 133, or 1 in every 358; deaths from puerperal causes, 86, or 1 in every 554. The maximum mortality in any one year from puerperal causes has been 11 in 3,781 deliveries, or 1 in 344; and there is, on the other hand, one year in which the deaths from all causes were only 2 in 3,297 deliveries, or 1 in 1,650. During the 5 years, 1860-4 inclusive, there were in the practice of this charity:—Deliveries, 17,242 ; and deaths from puerperal causes 31, or 1 in 556; while for the same period, the figures from the entire population of London show, on the authority of the Registrar-Q-eneral, deaths from puerperal causes 2361, to births 492,634, or 1 in 208i [Note.] These figures reveal the startling fact that the poor married women attended by the mid wives of the Eoyal Maternity charity die from puerperal causes in little more than one- third of that ratio which occurs among the entire population of London, which, it is weU-known, is chiefly attended by educated and skilled medical men. Yet the patients of this charity are chiefly drawn from the worst districts of central London, and ex- clusively from families so poor as to be unable to find those com- forts which are always provided for these occasions by the well- to-do artizan and better classes. From such a source there must necessarily come a large pro- portion of patients with worn-out constitutions and incurable organic disease, yet such is the class which in these calculations has been contrasted with the entire population of London, including all those who are unexceptionably fed, housed, and nursed. The operations of the Eoyal Maternity Charity are carried out by a staff of intelligent, respectable women, furnished with routine instructions for conducting their cases, and with arrange- ments for calling in certain obstetric physicians in cases of difficulty and danger. Thus, these women, so simply equipped,