The Tragedy of Childbed Fever

Childbed fever was by the far the most common cause of deaths associated with childbirth up to the Second World War, throughout Britain and Europe. Otherwise known as puerperal fever, it was an infection which followed childbirth and caused thousands of miserable and agonizing deaths every year. This book provides the first detailed account of this tragic disease from its recognition in the eighteenth century up to the second half of the twentieth century, examining it within a fully comprehensive history of infective diseases.