Historical Mortality Rates of Puerperal Fever - Yearly Patient Mortality Rates at The Dublin Maternity Hospital 1784-1849

Yearly Patient Mortality Rates At The Dublin Maternity Hospital 1784-1849

Semmelweis compared mortalilty rates in Vienna with maternity institutions in the United Kingdom where mortality rates were lower. He wished to show that childbed fever was related to pathological anatomy. His choice, Dublin Maternity Hospital, was like the Viennese hospital, a large teaching institution for physicians.

He argued that as a rule German and French maternity hospitals are associated with large general hospitals. Therefore their students occupy themselves in morgues, and in medical and surgical wards, as well as in maternity wards. In this way they become carriers of the decaying matter responsible for childbed fever.

Contrary hereto, maternity hospitals in the United Kingdom were independent institutions; removed from general hospitals. The students are forced to concern themselves exclusively with obstetrics, they do not carry out pathological autopsies.

Yearly puerperal fever mortality rates for birthgiving women at
Dublin Maternity Hospital for the period 1784-1849
reported by Semmelweis.
Year Births Deaths Rate (%)
1784 1261 11 0.9
1785 1292 8 0.6
1786 1351 8 0.6
1787 1347 10 0.7
1788 1469 23 1.6
1789 1435 25 1.7
1790 1546 12 0.8
1791 1602 25 1.6
1792 1631 10 0.6
1793 1747 19 1.1
1794 1543 20 1.3
1795 1503 7 0.5
1796 1621 10 0.6
1797 1712 13 0.8
1798 1604 8 0.5
1799 1537 10 0.7
1800 1837 18 1
1801 1725 30 1.7
1802 1985 26 1.3
1803 2028 44 2.2
1804 1915 16 0.8
1805 2220 12 0.5
1806 2406 23 1
1807 2511 12 0.5
1808 2665 13 0.5
1809 2889 21 0.7
1810 2854 29 1
1811 2561 24 0.9
1812 2676 43 1.6
1813 2484 62 2.5
1814 2508 25 1
1815 3075 17 0.6
1816 3314 18 0.5
1817 3473 32 0.9
1818 3539 56 1.6
1819 3197 94 2.9
1820 2458 70 2.8
1821 2849 22 0.8
1822 2675 12 0.4
1823 2584 59 2.3
1824 2446 20 0.8
1825 2740 26 0.9
1826 2440 81 3.3
1827 2550 33 1.3
1828 2856 43 1.5
1829 2141 34 1.6
1830 2288 12 0.5
1831 2176 12 0.6
1832 2242 12 0.5
1833 2138 12 0.6
1834 2024 34 1.7
1835 1902 34 1.8
1836 1810 36 2
1837 1833 24 1.3
1838 2126 45 2.1
1839 1951 25 1.3
1840 1521 26 1.7
1841 2003 23 1.1
1842 2171 21 1
1843 2210 22 1
1844 2288 14 0.6
1845 1411 35 2.5
1846 2025 17 0.8
1847 1703 47 2.8
1848 1816 35 1.9
1849 2063 38 1.8

Read more about this topic:  Historical Mortality Rates Of Puerperal Fever

Famous quotes containing the words yearly, patient, mortality, rates, maternity and/or hospital:

    “What is last year’s snow to me,
    Last year’s anything? The tree
    Budding yearly must forget
    How its past arose or set—”
    —Countee Cullen (1903–1946)

    “For who would bare the whips and scorns of time,
    Th’oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely,
    The pangs of disprized love, the law’s delay,
    The insolence of office, and the spurns
    That patient merit of th’unworthy takes,
    When he himself might his quietus make
    With a bare bodkin?”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “When I turned into a parent, I experienced a real and total personality change that slowly shifted back to the “normal” me, yet has not completely vanished. I believe the two levels are now superimposed, with an additional sprinkling of mortality intimations.”
    —Sonia Taitz (20th century)

    “Families suffered badly under industrialization, but they survived, and the lives of men, women, and children improved. Children, once marginal and exploited figures, have moved to a position of greater protection and respect,... The historic decline in the overall death rates for children is an astonishing social fact, notwithstanding the disgraceful infant mortality figures for the poor and minorities. Like the decline in death from childbirth for women, this is a stunning achievement.”
    —Joseph Featherstone (20th century)

    “I find it profoundly symbolic that I am appearing before a committee of fifteen men who will report to a legislative body of one hundred men because of a decision handed down by a court comprised of nine men—on an issue that affects millions of women.... I have the feeling that if men could get pregnant, we wouldn’t be struggling for this legislation. If men could get pregnant, maternity benefits would be as sacrosanct as the G.I. Bill.”
    —Letty Cottin Pogrebin (20th century)

    “Time rushes toward us with its hospital tray of infinitely varied narcotics, even while it is preparing us for its inevitably fatal operation.”
    —Tennessee Williams (1914–1983)