Address to the public, respecting the situation of the poor of Edinburgh, during the season of childbearing and lying-in.

  • Edinburgh General Lying-in Hospital.
Date:
1801
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address to the public, respecting the situation of the poor of Edinburgh, during the season of childbearing and lying-in. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    And after they have escaped the perils of childbear- ing, aggravated by unskilful management, they have many sufferings to undergo. The nature of their dwellings deprives them of the comforts of pure air, cleanliness, and rest of body and mind ; and the di- minution of the funds of the family prevents their having the articles of diet useful or even necessary to recovery while lying in, and, at the same time, subjects them to the alternative of having their infant negleCted, or of making exertions in its favour that may injure health or endanger existence. It cannot appear surprising, that from these cir- cumstances there is a great mortality of children with- in the month after birth, and that annually some ly- ing-in women are lost to society, and many renderec}. helpless and diseased for life. A simple recital of these evils must be quite suffi- cient to excite a desire to remedy them. Every prin- ciple of humanity and of morality concurs in esta- blishing the propriety of the measure. Two methods may be proposed for this purpose, viz. the institution of a society for affording profes- sional and pecuniary assistance to lying-in women at their own habitations; or the erection of an Hospital, to which poor women may resort during childbear- ing and lying-in. The former of these plans might be productive of much good at a very trifling expence. The wives of many of the tradesmen and mechanics cannot be absent from