Lunchtime Talk: Childbed Fever – An Aberdeen Doctor’s Discovery

Talk by Dr Martin Pucci, GP and Medical Historian

Childbed fever was a devastating disease which affected women within the first three days after childbirth. The cause was not understood until Dr Alexander Gordon (1752–1799), one of the shining lights in the history of obstetrics investigated and documented the illness in Aberdeen. This is the story of his amazing discovery.