Vestiges of the parturition chair in Malta

Abstract

It is not known when the birth-chair was introduced in the Maltese Islands. It was recognised as an item of the armamentarium of the midwife and obstetrician by the 18th century. Some of them have been found to be uncomfortable, troublesome and dangerous for the patient. Some of the chairs of Malta were hinged so that they could fold down flat for easy conveyance by the midwife. In 1852 Dr. G. Clinquant designed an obstetrical bed which could be converted into a birth-chair .He demonstrated its mechanism to obstetricians and midwives and explained the "facility and comfort by which every manoeuvre" of delivery could be effected. In the eighties of the last century one Professor Salvatore Luigi Pisani warned midwives against using the chair mainly because, with the patient in a sitting position, the midwife could not maintain adequate flexion of the baby's head by supporting the perineum. It was not easy, however, to convince parturient women to do away with the chair.