Introductory notes on lying-in institutions : together with a proposal for organising an institution for training midwives and midwifery nurses / by Florence Nightingale.

  • Nightingale, Florence, 1820-1910.
Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Introductory notes on lying-in institutions : together with a proposal for organising an institution for training midwives and midwifery nurses / by Florence Nightingale. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    St. George's Hospital Statistics for ' the 6 years preceding 1870 show only one maternal death in every 305 cases ' in the Out-door Maternity Department. Prom home records, it is hoped at some future time to give many more data of this kind, and to distinguish the causes of death: puerperal from non-puerperal mortahty, as well as that caused by puerperal diseases from that caused by accidents of childbirth. At present the data for doing this are lamentably deficient, if not almost altogether wanting. One good recorded fact will here be given. Among 1,929 mothers delivered at home by Guy's Hospital in 1869, 5 deaths only are recorded, and none from puerperal diseases; 2 were from heart disease, 2 from pneumonia, 1 from exhaustion. OBJECTIONS TO THE DATA. The value of the Eegistrar-General's results, and of those given by Le Fort, has been called in question by Dr. Duncan in his work already cited, partly on the authority of certain results of home practice, quoted from Dr. M'Clin- tock, who has collected the statistics of 16,774 deliveries exclusively from home practice. There were among these 45 deaths from accidents of labour, 52 deaths from puer- peral diseases, and 34 deaths from non-puerperal diseases ; giving a total mortality of 131, or nearly 8 per 1,000. On considering these figures, the first impression they convey is not that either the Eegistrar-General or Le Fort is wrong. But it is a very painful impression of another kind altogether. One feels disposed to ask whether it can be true that, in the