«Maternidade ou antecâmara de um inferno feminino?» Alfredo da Costa e a saúde materno-infantil

Abstract

The paper analyzes the conditions of the Santa Barbara childbirth ward, at the Royal Hospital of S. José, based on the understanding of Alfredo da Costa, a professor at the Lisbon Medical-Surgical School, an obstetrician at this hospital and the director of this maternity. Both the opening lessons of the Medical-Surgical School Obstetrics Course in 1899 and 1900, as well as the report delivered in 1906 to the Lisbon Medical-Surgical School Council, denounce the deficient conditions of the space and the lack of essential materials indispensable to the proper functioning of the ward, as well as the poor physical state of the parturients.