Dr. Channing was Professor of Midwifery and Medical Jurisprudence and Dean of the Faculty at Harvard Medical College. In 1832, he became a founder and chief physician of the Boston Lying-in Hospital, the first maternity hospital in New England—and an antecedent of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Channing was the first in the US to publish on the subject of anesthesia in childbirth. In this, his most influential work, Channing presented a statistical analysis of 581 cases of the use of ether and chloroform for the mitigation of pain during delivery. His positive evidence and advocacy reassured the public, and a heretofore unconvinced medical profession, that anesthesia was safe for mother and child.
]]>Dr. Channing was Professor of Midwifery and Medical Jurisprudence and Dean of the Faculty at Harvard Medical College. In 1832, he became a founder and chief physician of the Boston Lying-in Hospital, the first maternity hospital in New England—and an antecedent of the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Channing was the first in the US to publish on the subject of anesthesia in childbirth. In this, his most influential work, Channing presented a statistical analysis of 581 cases of the use of ether and chloroform for the mitigation of pain during delivery. His positive evidence and advocacy reassured the public, and a heretofore unconvinced medical profession, that anesthesia was safe for mother and child.