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Modified Early Obstetric Warning Score charts are instantly clear and they can save a life. What are they, though?

They are a single sheet chart, with time tracked across the top, where observations - pulse, blood pressure, temperature and a whole host of others - can be marked in the columns …

In the grip

… lime solution for hand washing. He too was ridiculed.

Medicine has moved on: in the West, hygiene practice means that childbed fever does not reach epidemic rates of occurrence - it is not being spread by doctors or midwives. What has not changed is that streptococcus, the cause that Gordon et al couldn't have known of, is still with us. It may wax and wane in prevalence, but it is in …

Childbed fever: the facts

… past

It is not a hospital acquired infection (HAI) or a 'superbug'

It is not caused by poor hygiene

Even a healthy immune system will not beat it

Delivering naturally and easily, without any complications does not eliminate the risk

Being young and healthy doesn't make you 'safe'

If you have a home birth, it doesn’t make you 'safe'

Lewis, G (ed) 2007. The …

Doctors are gentlemen, and gentlemen's hands are clean.

… childbed fever/puerperal fever/puerperal sepsis (call it what you will) is still caused by lack of hygiene and of handwashing.

Yes, if a mother has an internal examination by someone who has been performing autopsies without washing their hands in chlorinated lime, they're in trouble. What Ignaz Semmelwies discovered was the cause of the spread, in epidemic proportions, of sepsis.

Group A …

What is childbed fever?

… maternal death. 1

In western medicine today childbed fever is unlikely to be caused by poor hygiene - although historically it was the lack of hygiene standards that led to its spread in epidemic proportions.

It is a very serious form of septicaemia, caused by organisms such as the Group A streptococcus (GAS) bacteria which, if untreated, may lead to toxic shock syndrome, multi-organ …

Your say

Although this site, campaign and petition is because of and in memory of Jessica, it is for the benefit of future Mums like her. These are just a few of the things that people have said and emailed since this campaign started.

"I am an Independent Midwife, a supervisor of midwives and writer. I …

It could be you

… and the hi-tech equipment? A thermometer. The only difference between his time and now are the hygiene standards that luckily prevent the epidemics of old. Otherwise it's still exactly the same old disease.

So, know that childbed fever is still real, believe that it doesn't have to be, and understand that yes – it could happen to you.