Childbed fever: a major cause of maternal mortality

Abstract

[Extract] While fatal childbirth-related septicaemia is now extremely rare in current Australian practice, this is largely because of our armamentarium of powerful antibiotics. We would be wise to pay more attention, in the birth suites of the 21st century, to the basic principles of antisepsis and hygiene, elucidated by Semmelweis, Wendell Holmes, Lister and others in the 19th century.

Henry VIII had six wives but only one gave him a son. It was Lady Jane Seymour, the third wife, who fulfilled that most important duty for a queen of the times. However, she did not savour her triumph long, dying just 12 days after a prolonged labour and a difficult birth.