Josephine Scott
Josephine Scott was an American woman, living in Philadelphia, who died tragically due to inadequate medical care, during and after trying to give birth, in 1874.[1] Modern commentators are highly critical of the medical care provided by William H. Parish.[2]
Scott had been born with dwarfism in Georgia, in 1849.[2] She grew up with ricketts. She had tried to give birth before Parish was called to her home.
In an article about the unequal medical treatment black mothers continue to receive to this day the Philadelphia Inquirer quoted Parish's highly colored comments about the house where she lived, and her intelligence, writing “Her stupidity was such that no satisfactory history of herself could be given.”[2]
Parish did not attempt to delivery her baby via a Caesearian Section. Nor did he take her to the Philadelphia Hospital, two blocks away. After she died of sepsis, four weeks later, Parish acquired her body, dissected her, published a detailed account of her pelvic anatomy, and donated her pelvic bones to the Obstetrical Society of Philadelphia.[2]
An 1875 account of her case noted that she had undergone craniotomy operations, during earlier attempts to give birth.[1] A craniotomy during birth was a very dangerous procedure.[3] During birth, the procedure refers to squeezing the baby's head, with forceps, with so much force it routinely crushed their skulls. While often fatal, it did enable the physician to drag their bodies through the birth canal. Scott's birth canal was extremely narrow due to her childhood ricketts.
Scott's remains were never properly buried, and the Obstetrical Society transferred them to Mütter Museum, operated by the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.[4] The Mütter Museum now claims they have no record of receiving her remains.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Joseph Taber Johnson (May 1875). "On some of the apparent peculiarities of parturition in the Negro race, with remarks on race pelves in general". Journal of Obstetrics. https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/pdf/nlm:nlmuid-101664828-bk. Retrieved 2022-10-28.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Layla A. Jones (2022-07-12). "When the water breaks:America’s maternal mortality crisis traces back to Philadelphia, home to the nation’s first delivery wards. From the start, Black people received unequal treatment and were exploited for science". Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on 2022-10-01. https://web.archive.org/web/20221012135931/https://www.inquirer.com/news/inq2/more-perfect-union-maternal-morbidity-philadelphia-medicine-history-racism-20220712.html. Retrieved 2022-10-28. "Sheela Athreya, an anthropologist who began her Ph.D. at Penn, feels similarly about museums like the one that inherited Scott’s pelvis."
- ↑ Shelby Ray Pumphrey (May 2014). "Reclaiming my body : black women and the fight for reproductive justice". University of Louisville. https://ir.library.louisville.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2163&context=etd. Retrieved 2022-10-28.
- ↑ Patricia Madej, Layla A. Jones (2022-07-15). "How America’s first medical city birthed a racist maternal care system". Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on 2022-07-15. https://web.archive.org/web/20220715161555/https://www.inquirer.com/news/more-perfect-union-maternal-morbidity-philadelphia-medicine-history-takeaways-20220715.html. Retrieved 2022-10-28. "The Society donated the collection that included Scott’s pelvic bone to the Mütter Museum Committee of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in the late 19th century. The museum said it had “no evidence that the pelvis in question was ever placed in our custody” in a recent statement."
