Asistencia a la mujer embarazada en el Hospital Real a mediados del siglo XIX

Abstract

In the present doctoral thesis, assistance to pregnant women in Santiago de Compostela is addressed at a crucial stage of Science. The historical and social changes that occurred along with the definitive imposition of the scientific era affected the mothers and professionals by modifying the assistance to childbirth. The study of the training and professional regulation of each moment brings us closer to the concept of the profession and the socio-cultural characteristics of the professionals dedicated to childbirth care, whose action is affected by a progressive and growing medicalization. The office of midwife is constituted as a profession, its formation is in charge of the doctors but at the same time there is a progressive loss of protagonism of the woman in the attention to the maternity going on to adopt a secondary role. The Royal Hospital became the scene of the great advances made in the medical science of Compostela that opened a new panorama in medicine and in obstetrics, beginning the great fame of Compostela as the cradle of Galician medicine. Santiago enjoyed a good situation in terms of attendance at delivery, which together with the beginning of prenatal care and the start of the Gota de Leche, had a positive impact on the population and its results were soon reflected in the decrease in figures of maternal and infant mortality.