How Did Ignaz Semmelweis Childbed Fever

Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865) was a Hungarian physician who is credited with the introduction of medical practices designed to reduce sepsis rates. (1). Semmelweis was hired into an obstetric clinic in Vienna and shortly after his hire, he began noticing that many mothers were dying of what they called childbed fever, otherwise known as puerperal fever. He made observations and tested various hypotheses before finally discovering the cause of the disease. Semmelweis attempted to implement practices into the medical field to help prevent childbed fever, but before he could do so effectively, he lost his job and his practices were then ignored. (2) Semmelweis was born in 1818 in what is now Budapest, Hungary. He received his education in Pest and Vienna, including his doctoral from Vienna. (1) Following this, he became an assistant in an obstetrician clinic in Vienna. There he discovered that women who gave birth in the maternity wards had significantly higher mortality rates that those who delivered at home. The women who delivered in the hospital were generally those were living in poverty or who faced complications during pregnancy. There were many

Some of the physicians felt that Semmelweis was blaming them for causing childbed fever. (5). Semmelweis was also known to publicly shame those his disagreed with him and due to this, he had many enemies in the medical field. Semmelweis lost his job and physicians in Vienna reverted back to not washing their hands between patients. (2) He went on to give lectures regarding his discoveries with childbed fever. He later returned to Pest to work in the St. Rochus Hospital where a significant number of childbed fever cases had broken out. (4). Once there, the mortality rate dropped to .85% but back in Vienna where his practices were no longer in use, the mortality rate rose to 12-15%.