Episode description

Our goal here at The Wholesome Show is to make you feel happy, amused and entertained. But a fair warning that we must sometimes journey through a rather astonishing volume of grotesque and sad death to get you there.

We won’t apologise for it. It is our duty.

In this episode, we travel back to the 18th and 19th centuries - a generally dire time to be alive. Infanticide - the killing of unwanted children - was a horrifyingly common reality. 

Luckily at the time, there was a relatively liberal emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Joseph II, that decided to try and do something about this epidemic of child killing. 

First of all, he established foundling homes, where unwanted infants could be dropped off.  There was even a convenient after-hours “chute” for those times you couldn’t possibly get there during business hours to give away your children. Convenience was key, even in those days.

Then Joseph II set up maternity hospitals, for mothers to give birth in. Was this a brilliant success? Let’s say a little bit of yes and … quite a lot of no. You see, there was a rumour going around that while these hospitals were free, they were in fact … houses of death. 

How did all this death occur?

Well within 24 - 48 hours after exhausted women in need of a solid nap gave birth, they became incredibly unwell. Relentless fevers, excruciating abdominal pain, headaches…These women would go downhill very quickly.

Now, because it was the 18th century they had some wacky ancient treatments. The ever trusty leeches, a bit of bloodletting, lots of mercury, opium (that part sounds pretty good), and of course enemas. Because everyone feels like an enema when they’re knocking on death’s door.

Did these treatments work at least? No. No they didn’t. These hospitals don’t get to be known as “Houses of Death” without quite a lot of death.

This is where we come to the hero of our story - Dr Ignaz Semmelweis. 

Upon starting work as an obstetrician at the maternity wing of the Vienna General Hospital, Semmelweis realised pretty quickly that something was wrong. Surely a large part of the puzzle was missing.

Ignaz Semmelweis made a discovery that would go on to save hundreds and thousands of lives, but he unfortunately paid the ultimate price. Tune in to the episode to hear why Ignaz Semmelweis is truly a martyr to science.

Previous episodes mentioned:

A Brief History of Medical Leeches!

The History And Future Of The Death Certificate

Sources

• British Medical Journal: Infanticide and Excessive Infant Mortality
• Caroline M De Costa The Medical Journal of Australia: “The contagiousness of childbed fever”: a short history of puerperal sepsis and its treatment
• Ignaz Semmelweis: The etiology, concept, and prophylaxis of childbed fever
• K Codell Carter & Barbara R Carter: Childbed Fever
• Museum of Contraception and Abortion: The Vienna Foundlings and Orphans Home
• Paige Mathieson: Midlands Historical Review: Bad or Mad? Infanticide: Insanity and Morality in Nineteenth-Century Britain
• Sydney Morning Herald: Would baby hatches have saved Lily Grace?
• The Persecuted: 10 famous martyrs and why they died (Updated 2020)
• Wikipedia: Baby hatch
• Wikipedia: Giordano Bruno
• Wikipedia: Ignaz Semmelweis
• Wikipedia: Infanticide
• Wikipedia: Tank Man
• The World of the Hapsburgs: The Vienna Foundling Home between welfare and population policy

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.