Today’s Severely Weakened Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Puerperal fever, also known at the time as childbed fever, was a tragically common infection among new mothers in the 19th century. In a time before the washing of hands and tools became mandated routine, this highly communicable disease was spread easily and frequently between a doctor and his weakened female patient, whose vulnerable body was still raw, spent, and bleeding from labor.
Within a few days of giving birth, the woman would begin to feel the first symptoms. What first came on as chills and fever would quickly evolve into a “fierce and consuming” infection, which spread with shocking speed and searing pain throughout the woman’s entire reproductive system. Many times, the women’s bodies could not fight off the infection – severely weakened as they were by pregnancy, breast-feeding, and the aftermath of their long, hard birthing process. It is no wonder the disease earned the harrowing moniker the destroyer of families.
Culled from: Dr. Mütter’s Marvels: A True Tale of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine
Here’s an article from the Freeman’s Journal (Philadelphia) dated February 4, 1784 describing a tragic death from puerperal fever:
