History of Forceps

One of the greatest innovations in the treatment of obstructed labour was forceps. Obstructed labour was perhaps the number one cause of death to birthing mothers, previous to the 1600’s. With the invention of forceps, came a great increase in the survival rate of mothers and babies during childbirth. Previous to this time, death during childbirth was “an expected” tragedy.

Forceps were invented by William Chamberlain, but they were a crude invention at that time. The use of forceps was really pioneered by William Smellie (1697-1763); he was a doctor of family medicine in Scotland. He left Scotland in 1739 to study in London and Paris. He returned to London and set up a midwifery school.
Midwifery at that time was still teeming with superstitions and was very secretive (practices and knowledge were not shared between midwives at this time). In fact from the 14th to the 17th century many lay midwives and female healers were accused of being witches and were hunted and executed. Mr. Smellie’s midwifery school became very popular; it was probably because it was a very timely “invention”!
In fact, the practice of midwifery started to decline with the opening of an obstetric ward in Britain in 1739. During these times women were banned from university medical training which made midwives look ‘uneducated’ and they were looked upon as the “less” desirable birth attendants. It was only the wealthy and upper class who could afford trained medical doctors to attend the birth of their babies.
As one might imagine, Mr. Smellie was not very popular in those times by a lot of older and more “experienced” midwives! He was taking both their jobs and income away from them. Midwives tried hard to discredit him; they also complained that it was unfavorable and distasteful to have males present during such an intimate female “process”.

Levret type III delivery forceps, German, 1751-1800.

Steel forceps by Weber. Obstetric forceps were first used in the 18th century, especially by the 'man-midwives' who were moving into the profession. Dr William Chamberlain devised the first obstetrical forceps in the late 16th century. Two tong-like blades were inserted separately into the mother’s birth canal and around the baby’s head, then locked together to ease the baby out. In the mid 18th century many 'men-midwives' emerged leading to contributions to the anatomical understanding of gestation and birth. English surgeon William Smellie (1697-1763) and French surgeon Andre Levret (1703-1780) simultaneously improved the forceps by adding interlocking blades and a pelvic curve to the instrument. This basic type is still in use today.