Hygiene, an essential factor

An essential part of the training at the School in Santa Cristina was hygiene. Since the discovery of the microbial origin of the dreaded puerperal fever, asepsis and antisepsis were fundamental in reducing maternal death. One of the defects highlighted by Phillip Hauser in the Casa de Maternidad in Mesón de Paredes street in Madrid, was the lack of an isolation room for women carrying postpartum infections. What they used to do in the old maternity centre was transfer infected patients to the Hospital General de Madrid, and, according to Hauser, this move was probably a death sentence for these women, both because of the precarious conditions of the transfer, and also because of the high rate of infectious mortality in the Hospital General itself, located in the building which now houses the Museo de Arte Reina Sofía.

The design and planning of the Casa de Salud de Santa Cristina was conceived bearing in mind all the tenets of hygienists. It included rooms for patients who had developed postpartum infections, to isolate them from the rest and prevent epidemics. Clearly, as we see in the photo, washing of hands and using sterile material during deliveries was a key factor to keep in mind. Likewise, the bed linen and instruments were carefully sterilised.

When infections occurred, they even hired a midwife to care only for the women affected. In spite of all these measures, until the advent of antibiotics postpartum infections continued to be an important cause of maternal death in developed countries, something which, tragically, is still the case in many developing countries.