Eponyms and Names in Obstetrics and Gynaecology

Baskett, Thomas F.

doi:10.1017/9781108421706

Cited by 11 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 526 publications

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“…7 By 1855 he was able to report 27 successful operations for obstetric fistula. 8 In addition, George Hayward also closed a fistula and published his success in 1839. 6 Thomas F Baskett, author of Eponyms and Names in Obstetrics and Gynaecology wrote that while Sims was definitely not the first of the fistula pioneers he was certainly the most 'tenacious'.…”

Section: Obstetric Fistula and Enslaved Womenmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…6 Thomas F Baskett, author of Eponyms and Names in Obstetrics and Gynaecology wrote that while Sims was definitely not the first of the fistula pioneers he was certainly the most 'tenacious'. 8 Despite these various successes, obstetric fistula remained a largely untreatable condition of pain, incontinence, smell, infection and, ultimately, isolation from society, but it was not fatal; although there is evidence to suggest it sometimes led to suicide. 9 For an enslaved woman, this condition brought other considerations to the fore, and having a fistula meant she could no longer be considered the lucrative asset she once was to her enslaver.…”

Section: Obstetric Fistula and Enslaved Womenmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Anarcha, Betsey, Lucy, and the women whose names were not recorded: The legacy of J Marion Sims

Cronin

2020

Anaesth Intensive Care

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In April 2018, a statue commemorating J Marion Sims was removed from Central Park, New York, and relocated to Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, where he is buried. In 1849, Sims developed a repeatable surgical solution for obstetric fistula, a debilitating condition caused by prolonged, obstructed labour, which damages the vaginal wall, resulting in permanent leakage via the vagina from either the bowel or bladder and sometimes both. Initially, Sims appears worthy of widespread adulation. There are several commemorative statues of him, he has been afforded the title of the ‘father of modern gynaecology’, and for 37 years, the American Urogynecological Society held an annual eponymous lecture, among other honours. Obstetric fistula rendered women social pariahs, unable to engage fully in either domestic or public life. Sims was able to create a reliably repeatable surgical solution but did so through ongoing experimentation on enslaved women. One of these women, Anarcha, was operated on at least 30 times without the use of anaesthesia over a four-year period, despite the availability of anaesthesia for the majority of the experimentation period. Over 170 years later, Sims’ story retains its relevance because it represents a clear point at which race, gender and class intersect with medicine. This paper will use Sims’ own account to drive the narrative, then examine matters of agency, ethics and consent that come from it, to show that his work, and subsequent renown, were only possible because of the inherent violence of chattel slavery and other systemic forms of oppression.

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Section: Obstetric Fistula and Enslaved Womenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Obstetric Fistula and Enslaved Womenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anarcha, Betsey, Lucy, and the women whose names were not recorded: The legacy of J Marion Sims

Cronin

2020

Anaesth Intensive Care

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“…9 Amniotic Fluid Analysis Douglas Bevis (1918Bevis ( -1994 was the first to suggest that hemoglobin breakdown products in the amniotic fluid could predict the degree of fetal anemia. 2 In 1950, while working as a senior resident in obstetrics at St Mary's Hospital, Manchester, United Kingdom, he measured the iron levels in the amniotic fluid of 30 cases of Rh immunization, obtained at hindwater rupture of the membranes during induction of labour. 10 He followed this with a prospective study of 158 specimens of amniotic fluid taken at amniocentesis in 69 patients and was able to relate the levels of iron and urobilinogen to fetal outcome.…”

Section: Diagnosis and Prediction Of Severity History And Antibody Titresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…11 William Liley (1929 in Auckland, New Zealand, expanded the work of Bevis with serial amniocentesis in 101 Rh-immunized women and measured the levels of bilirubin by spectrophotometry. 2 From these results he developed a graph that allowed the outcome to be placed into three fetal prognostic zones-Liley's zones. 12 This became the standard method of assessment of the Rh-immunized fetus for the next 50 years.…”

Section: Diagnosis and Prediction Of Severity History And Antibody Titresmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Tragedy to Triumph: Canadian Connections in the Management of Rhesus Hemolytic Disease of the Newborn

Baskett

2019

Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada

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J ohn Ballantyne (1861Ballantyne ( -1923 of Edinburgh wrote that the first record of fetal hydrops was given by Hippocrates in The Epidemics with a description of a "fleshy foetus" with "general foetal dropsy." 1 It is probable that the French midwife, Louise Bourgeois (1563-1636), gave the first account of hemolytic disease of the newborn in her 1609 midwifery text. 2 She reported the case of a multiparous woman who delivered twins; one was hydropic and died soon after birth, and the other developed jaundice and died on the fourth day. DEFINITION OF THE DISEASEUntil the 1930s the disease entity we now know as Rhesus (Rh) hemolytic disease of the newborn was not defined and was represented by four, at that time not necessarily related, disorders: hydrops, neonatal jaundice, anemia, and erythroblastosis. This constellation of disorders was first grouped as being from a single cause in 1930 by the Canadian-born John Ferguson (b. 1900) while working as a junior pathologist at Harvard University. 3 In his report of six neonatal deaths with erythroblastosis he concluded that hydrops, jaundice, and erythroblastosis "are probably representative of a definite disease entity of the newly born, and whatever the etiology may be, the underlying cause is undoubtedly the same in each instance." 3 The same conclusion was reached the following year by Diamond and colleagues, with the addition of neonatal anemia to the clinical picture. 4 It was also noted that the disease tended to recur from one pregnancy to the next, but never in the affected woman's first pregnancy. PATHOPHYSIOLOGYRuth Darrow (1895-1956) was a general practitioner in Chicago who worked from her medical office and clinic in the basement of her house and held staff privileges at the Women's and Children's Hospital. 5 In 1935, after two uneventful pregnancies, her third baby, a son, developed severe neonatal jaundice and died: the autopsy showed extensive erythroblastosis. While still in medical practice she dedicated the next 2 years to reviewing all the available literature on erythroblastosis fetalis. She concluded that the mother "poisoned" her own infant with some "toxic substance." Darrow eventually deduced that some fetal red cells must pass through the placenta into the maternal blood and initiate an immune reaction. As she put it: "An antigen-antibody reaction seems to explain best all aspects of these related disorders." 5 Thus, in her lonely one-woman review, she succeeded in accurately delineating the pathophysiological mechanism behind erythroblastosis fetalis that had taken the life of her son. However, she concluded, as had others, 4 that "This mechanism, incidentally, bears no relation to a difference in blood groups in mother and child." 5 The full explanation would await the discovery of the Rh blood antigen.

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“…C'est un m edecin français qui, en 1821, a utilis e le terme « m enopause » pour la premi ere fois. Le D r Archie Cameron, gyn ecologue canadien a l'Hôpital g en eral de Montr eal, a et e le premier a recourir a l'oestrog enoth erapie en 1930 en utilisant un extrait placentaire humain (Emmenin) d ecouvert par James Collip 1 . Dans les ann ees qui ont suivi, la demande pour cette hormonoth erapie etait telle que la production d'extraits placentaires s'est av er ee insuffisante.…”

Section: Le Passéunclassified

Traitement de la ménopause : passé, présent et futur

Reid

2019

Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada

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Eponyms and Names in Obstetrics and Gynaecology

Cited by 11 publications

References 526 publications

Anarcha, Betsey, Lucy, and the women whose names were not recorded: The legacy of J Marion Sims

Anarcha, Betsey, Lucy, and the women whose names were not recorded: The legacy of J Marion Sims

From Tragedy to Triumph: Canadian Connections in the Management of Rhesus Hemolytic Disease of the Newborn

Traitement de la ménopause : passé, présent et futur

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