(Robert Jones) As recent as the mid-1800s, five women in 1,000 died in deliveries performed by midwives. On the other hand, when physicians performed deliveries, the death rate was often 10 to 20 times greater. This was because physicians often began their day performing autopsies with bare hands and then, without washing their hands, examined pregnant women and delivered babies. Midwives, on the other hand, did not perform autopsies. These physician-caused deaths were due to puerperal fever, a horrendous way to die characterized by high fevers, painful abscesses, and a tortured decline into a nightmare of irreversible sepsis.