[In memoriam: 100th anniversary of Professor Dragutin (Drago) Vrabnić birthday]

Professor Dragutin (Drago) Vrbanić, MD, PhD (1912 - 1996) was an eminent figure of Croatian medicine, especially in Rijeka and Istria. His work includes a number of publications and managerial accomplishments that encouraged the development of gynaecology and obstetrics. He can also be credited for the organisation and affirmation of midwifery in Rijeka. Professor Vrbanić was highly appreciated not only for his educational and scientific achievements, but also as a valuable mentor to younger colleagues, whom he encouraged to pursue their profession to the fullest.

[Midwifery ordinance of Joannis Baptiste Lalangue in the context of the historical development midwifery in Croatia]

Joannis Baptiste Lalangue was the author of the first published rules for performance of midwifery activities printed in Croatian language (Nagovorni lizt, Zagreb, Trattner, 1785), which is extremely important information for the study of the history of Croatian midwifery. The work contains the first printed oath of midwifery in Croatian language, and has not been known in the medical professional literature to date. Lalangue was the founder of the Croatian midwifery, who gave us the first tutorial and first printed rulebook for performing midwifery services in Croatian language. He also founded the first Croatian midwifery school in Varazdin in 1776. After successful completion of training in Varazdin, midwives were authorized to perform midwifery services, and after that initial 'licensing', in order to perform midwifery activity they had to undergo mandatory and statutory testing of knowledge and skills as a prerequisite for 'relicensing', which gave them right to perform midwifery services. This is the basis of the training and continuous education of Croatian midwives to the present, which is consistent with the achievements of modern midwifery and Lalangue's tenets. Lalangue's works were used in systematic training and education of midwives and they, along with their author, have place in the history of Croatian midwifery.

Mrs Killer and Dr Crook: birth attendants and birth outcomes in early twentieth-century Derbyshire

After the passing of the 1902 Midwives Act, a growing proportion of women were delivered by trained and supervised midwives. Standards of midwifery should therefore have improved over the first three decades of the twentieth century, yet nationally this was not reflected in the main outcome measures (stillbirths, early neonatal mortality and maternal death). This paper shows that there was a difference in the risks associated with delivery by the different attendants, with qualified midwives having the best outcome, then bona-fide (untrained) midwives and lastly doctors, even when account is taken of the fact that doctors were called in cases of medical need and may have been booked where a problematic delivery was expected. The paper argues that the lack of improvement in outcome measures could be consistent with improving standards of care among both trained and bona-fide midwives, because increased attention to the rules stipulating when midwives called for medical help meant that a doctor was called into an increasing number of deliveries (including less complicated ones), raising the chance of unnecessary and dangerous interventions.

Sairey Gamps, feminine nurses and greedy monopolists: discourses of gender and professional identity in the Lancet and the British Medical Journal, 1886-1902

The British debate over midwife registration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was highly gendered. Focusing on the period between the 1886 Medical Act and the 1902 Midwives Act, this article uses the content from the Lancet and the British Medical Journal, the two main general medical publications of the time, to explore the complex ways that gender works through other categories such as class and race to create professional identity. Specifically this article demonstrates how man-midwives used gendered language to help create identities for themselves, female midwives, and other rivals in order to legitimize their own professional identity and practice and to delegitimize the professional identities of their competition.

[The portrait of an elite, during the transformation from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic (1861-1940)]

Having spent the first half of his lifetime during declining years of the Ottoman Empire and the other half, at the first reformative, energetic decades of the Turkish Republic, Besim Omer Akalin, M.D. exemplifies very well of a new urban elite at the turn of the 20th century, regarding his education, formation, professional and administrative roles in the society He is known of his remarkable contributions in obstetrics, in pediatrics; and also of his fundamental works for the education of midwifery and nursing in Turkey. He carried out several duties at the same time, such as professor at the Istanbul medical School (Mekteb-i Tibbiye-i Sahane - Darülfünun Tip Fakültesi), head of the first Obstetrical clinic (Viladethane) in Turkey, leader of several associations such as the Red Crescent Society (Hilal-i Ahmer Cemiyeti), the Society for the Protection of Children (Himaye-i Etfal Cemiyeti), Anti-Tuberculosis Society (Verem Savaş Derneği), member of several commissions concerning the public sanitation and health affairs, rector of the Istanbul University, Turkish delegate of the international medical congresses and associations, member of Parliament. Among all those responsibilities, the accomplished to write numerous books, yearbooks and articles on the above mentioned topics. He was also famous for his initiative supporting women to educate at the university and also to come up at the public and socialarena. This study deals with his activities and works on the basis of his biography studied on archival and bibliographical sources. The list of his complete works is annexed to the text.