Introduction

In the early 18 forties, one in ten women whose baby was delivered by a doctor at vienna general hospital died from what was called childbed fever. The death rate in the midwives ward was far lower. One theory at the time held that birthing mothers were such fragile creatures that being seen naked by a male doctor was enough to kill them. In those days, it would occasionally happen that a woman out of wedlock would deliver herself, sometimes in the streets.