Puerperal fever
Overview
Puerperal fever or childbed fever, is a bacterial infection contracted by women during childbirth
or miscarriage
. It can develop into puerperal sepsis, which is a serious form of septicaemia. If untreated, it is often fatal.
From the 1600s through the mid to late 1800s, the majority of childbed fever cases were caused by the doctors themselves. With no knowledge of germs, doctors did not believe hand washing was needed.
Childbirth
Childbirth is the culmination of a human pregnancy or gestation period with the birth of one or more newborn infants from a woman's uterus...
or miscarriage
Miscarriage
Miscarriage or spontaneous abortion is the spontaneous end of a pregnancy at a stage where the embryo or fetus is incapable of surviving independently, generally defined in humans at prior to 20 weeks of gestation...
. It can develop into puerperal sepsis, which is a serious form of septicaemia. If untreated, it is often fatal.
From the 1600s through the mid to late 1800s, the majority of childbed fever cases were caused by the doctors themselves. With no knowledge of germs, doctors did not believe hand washing was needed.
