We see this more clearly if we look at the\u00a0proportion of deaths<\/em>\u00a0out of the number of women giving birth at Clinic 1.<\/p>\n If we now plot the proportion of deaths at both clinic 1 and clinic 2 we’ll see a curious pattern… and huge problem<\/p>\n Why is the proportion of deaths constantly so much higher in Clinic 1? Semmelweis saw the same pattern and was puzzled and distressed. The only difference between the clinics was that many medical students served at Clinic 1, while mostly midwife students served at Clinic 2. While the midwives only tended to the women giving birth, the medical students also spent time in the autopsy rooms examining corpses.<\/p>\n Semmelweis started to suspect that something on the corpses, spread from the hands of the medical students, caused childbed fever. So in a desperate attempt to stop the high mortality rates, he decreed:\u00a0Wash your hands!<\/em>\u00a0This was an unorthodox and controversial request, nobody in Vienna knew about bacteria at this point in time.<\/p>\n Starting from the summer of 1847 the proportion of deaths is drastically reduced and, yes, this was when Semmelweis made handwashing obligatory.<\/p>\n The effect of handwashing is made even more clear if we highlight this in the graph.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/35.180.88.53\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/handwashing_data_1.png\")
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