Growth of Neonatal Perinatal Medicine—A Historical Perspective

Perinatal Pioneers

Many scientists played strategic roles in developing the basic concepts in neonatal-perinatal medicine that helped to formalize the scientific basis for neonatal clinical care. Their work and teachings inspired generations of further researchers advancing the field. For brevity's sake, only a few are shown in Fig. 1.1 .

Medicinal chemistry (later called biochemistry) and classic physiology gained popularity and acceptance toward the end of the nineteenth century, inaugurating studies on biochemical and physiologic problems in the fetus and newborn. Some leading scientists in the early twentieth century, making fundamental contributions and training scores of scientists from around world, included Barcroft and his mentee Dawes in England (gas exchange and nutritional transfer across the placenta and oxygen carrying in fetal and adult hemoglobin); Ylppö in Finland (neonatal nutrition, jaundice, and thermoregulation); Lind in Sweden (circulatory physiology); Smith in Boston (fetal and neonatal respiratory physiology); DeLee in Chicago (leading researcher on incubators and in high-risk obstetric topics, he also founded the first US “incubator station” at the Chicago Lying-in Hospital); Day in New York (temperature regulation, retinopathy of prematurity, and jaundice); and Gordon in Denver (nutrition). Although no formal curriculum existed, all these centers offered rigorous training in perinatal physiology and clinical medicine. Smith once said, “If you were interested in babies and liked Boston, I was the only wheel in town!” Table 1.1 highlights some milestones in perinatal medicine.

The High-Risk Fetus and Perinatal Obstetrics

Because so many deaths occurred in early infancy in times past, many cultures adopted remarkably innovative methods to deal with such tragedies. According to a Jewish tradition, full, year-long mourning is not required for infants who die before 30 days of age. In some Asian ethnic groups, infant-naming ceremonies are held only after several months, until which time the infant is simply called “it.” In India, an odd or coarse-sounding name is given to the first surviving infant after the death of a previous sibling; this is aimed at deflecting evil spirits. In her book on the history of the Middle Ages, Tuchman notes that infants were seldom depicted in medieval artworks. When they were drawn (e.g., the infant Jesus), women in the pictures looked away from the infant, ostensibly conveying respect but perhaps because of fearful aloofness.

Since antiquity, the care of pregnant women has been the purview of midwives, grandmothers, and experienced female elders in the community. Wet nurses helped when mothers were unavailable or unwilling to nurse their infants. Little or no assistance was needed for normal or uncomplicated labor and delivery. For complicated deliveries, male physicians had to be summoned, but they could do little because many of them lacked expertise or interest in treating women. Disasters during labor and delivery were common, rendering this phase in their lives the most dreaded for women. In the early 1900s unexpected intrapartum complications accounted for 50% to 70% of all maternal deaths in England and Wales. Because the immediate concern during most high-risk deliveries was to save the mother, sick newborns were not given substantial attention; their death rates remained very high.

Occasionally, happy outcomes of high-risk deliveries did occur. In one of the oldest works of art depicting labor and delivery ( Fig. 1.2 A ), a bearded man and his assistant are standing behind a woman in labor, holding devices remarkably similar to the modern obstetric forceps. The midwife has delivered an evidently live infant. In Fig. 1.2 B , three infants from a set of quadruplets, nicely swaddled, have been placed on the mother, as the unwrapped fourth infant is being handed to her for nursing. A divine figure in the background is blessing the newcomers.

Cesarean sections were seldom performed on living women before the thirteenth century. Even subsequently, the procedure was performed only as a final act of desperation. Contrary to popular belief, Julius Caesar's birth was not likely by cesarean section. Because Caesar's mother was alive during his reign, historians believe that she probably delivered him vaginally. The term cesarean probably originated from lex caesarea , in turn from lex regia , the “royal law” prohibiting burial of corpses of pregnant women without removal of their fetuses. The procedure allowed for baptism (or a similar blessing) if the child was alive or burial otherwise. Infants surviving the ordeal of cesarean birth were assumed to possess special powers, as supposedly did Shakespeare's Macduff—“not of a woman born,” but of a corpse, and able to slay Macbeth.

Soranus of Ephesus (circa 38-138 ad ) influenced obstetric practice for 1400 years. His Gynecology can be regarded as the first formal “textbook” of perinatal medicine. Initially extant, it was rediscovered in 1870 and translated into English for the first time in 1956. Soranus wrote superbly about podalic version, obstructed labor, multiple gestations, fetal malformations, and numerous other maternal and fetal disorders. In an age of belief in magic and the occult, he insisted that midwives should be educated and free from superstitions. He forbade wet nurses from drinking alcohol lest it render the infant “excessively sleepy.” His chapter, “How to Recognize the Newborn That Is Worth Rearing,” remains one of the earliest accounts on assessing viability of sick newborns—a topic of great concern even today.

Midwives and Perinatal Care

Although occasionally caricatured ( Fig. 1.3 ), midwives were responsible for delivering obstetric care for thousands of years. Men disliked obstetrics, and women were too shy to let male physicians handle them. Good midwives were always in great demand, and many of them held important social and political positions in European courts.

The emergence of man-midwives ( Fig. 1.4 ) in England had a major effect on high-risk obstetric practice. Chamberlen the Elder (1575-1628) is usually credited for inventing the modern obstetric forceps. For 150 years, through three generations of Chamberlens, the instrument remained a trade secret. By then, others had developed similar devices, and patients began associating good obstetric outcomes with male physicians—a strategic factor in transforming midwifery to a male-dominated craft. The shift from women-midwifery to men-midwifery might also have been caused by changing social values and gender relationships in which women voluntarily began making choices about their bodies. Today's increasing roles for female midwives and the higher proportion of women choosing specific birth practices (e.g., home versus hospital delivery, “underwater births,” cesarean delivery on request) offer interesting contrasts and perspectives to eighteenth century obstetrics.

Neonatal Resuscitation: Tales of Heroism and Desperation

Popular artworks and ancient medical writings provide accounts of miraculous revivals of apparently dead adults and children. These are tales of successes only, for the failures were buried and rarely reported. Attempts to “stimulate” and revive apparently dead newborns included beating, shaking, yelling, fumigating, dipping in ice-cold water, and dilating and blowing smoke into the rectum and other techniques. Oxygen administration through an orogastric tube to revive asphyxiated infants persisted well into the mid-1950s, when James and Apgar showed conclusively that the therapy was useless.

Apgar and the Language of Asphyxia

Few scientists in the twentieth century influenced the practice of neonatal resuscitation as profoundly as Apgar (1909-1974). A surgeon, she chose obstetric anesthesia for her career. Her simple scoring system inaugurated the modern era of assessing infants at birth on the basis of simple clinical examination. Right or wrong, the Apgar score became the language of asphyxia. It is often said that the first words heard by a newborn infant are “What's the Apgar score?” Although “giving an Apgar” has become a ritual, its profound effect has been on formalizing the process of observing, assessing, and communicating the infant status at birth in a consistent and uniform manner. This process eventually led to the formal steps of resuscitation at birth using the score. Few people know that it was also Apgar who was the first to catheterize the umbilical artery in a newborn. A woman of enormous energy, talent, and compassion, Apgar was honored with her depiction on a 1994 US postage stamp ( Fig. 1.5 ).

Foundling Asylums and Infant Care

In its early days, the Roman Empire experienced decreasing population growth. The emperors taxed bachelors and rewarded married couples to encourage procreation. In 315 ad , Emperor Constantine, hoping to curb infanticide and encourage the adoption of orphans, decreed that all “foundlings” would become slaves of those who adopted them. Similar humanitarian efforts by kings and the Council of the Roman Church led to the institutionalization of infant care by establishing foundling asylums for abandoned infants, also called “Hospitals for the Innocent”—the first children's hospitals. Parents of unwanted infants “dropped off” their infants in a revolving receptacle at the door of such asylums, rang the doorbells, and disappeared into the night ( Fig. 1.6 ). Sadly, such incidences occur even in modern times.

Foundling asylums adopted pragmatic techniques for fundraising. In eighteenth century France, lotteries were held, and souvenirs were sold. In May 1749, Handel gave a concert to support London's “Hospital for the Maintenance and Education of Exposed and Deserted Young Children.” The final item of the program was the playing of “The Foundling Hymn.”

Saving Infants to Man the Army

During the French Revolution, France faced appalling rates of infant mortality. With rates greater than 50%, the Revolutionary Council in 1789 enacted a decree proclaiming that working-class parents “have a right to the nation's succors at all times.” The post-revolutionary euphoria about equality and fraternity among men stimulated reforms, heralding an idealistic welfare state, leading to collecting and maintaining valid statistics about children. The world's first national databases began in France in the late eighteenth century.

Over the next century, France faced a population problem similar to that of ancient Rome—a negative population growth. The birth rate had declined, and infant mortality remained high. Fearing future shortages of troops, the military leaders, deeply engaged in battles with Prussia, were naturally alarmed. Commissions were set up to study the depopulation problem and develop remedial actions. A series of measures began to improve maternal and neonatal care. Young parents were encouraged to uphold their patriotism and bear more children to “man the future armies.” It is the irony of our times that such noble intentions as saving infants were motivated by brutal needs for enhancing military might.