Thanks for this interesting summary.
After looking at the photo links you provided, I realized that I had seen and used the sklar leff stethoscope in the very early part of my career. The heavy weight was necessary to make contact without applying hand pressure, which would distort the sound and the FHR findings. It seemed such a cumbersome and cold thing!
The DeLee stethescope (1920s-1930s) preceeded the Allen; the DeLee's headband and the Allen's forehead rest were also designed to avoid hand pressure to obtain contact with the skin, and for the same reasons. DeLee was an extraordinarily influencial US obstetrician who drove the professionalization of US obstetrics, 'prophylactic' forceps and episiotomy, and elimination of traditional midwifery, etc., etc., from the 1890s until his death in 1942.
I personally like the Allen and have used it in a wide variety of settings for many years. I admire the concept and aesthetics of the Pinard, and value its symbolic meaning.
I believe that the Pinard has been in use in the US for a long time, but I suspect that it was brought to the US by the British midwives recruited by Mary Breckinridge to the Frontier Nursing Service in Kentucky. Breckinridge obtained her midwifery education at the British Hospital for Mothers and Babies (as she describes it in 'Wide Neighborhoods,' 1952), in the Woolwich dockyard section of southeast London (1923). I looked thru MB's book for any reference to how midwives and others might have listened to the baby during labor in the 1920s, but could not find any.
I don't have a specific reference (does anyone else?) for how the Pinard was considered in the US alternative birth movement--I just remember that when I was catching babies in home births in the late-70s and early-80s, and would attend national conferences and regional and local gatherings, the Pinard was regarded as a uniquely midwifery-oriented way to listen to the baby. I would not say that it was 'the' symbol of the alternative birth movement here, but it has long seemed to hold a special place as something that midwives seem to see as 'our' instrument, as opposed to the then burgeoning, medically-oriented, electronic fetal monitor.
It is fascinating how all these tidbits come together when a question is tossed out on the listserv!!
Jo Anne Davis
Jo Anne P. Davis, CNM, PhD
Midwifery Faculty
New York University College of Nursing
New York, NY, USA
----- Original Message -----
From: "Macfarlane, Alison" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 10:54 am
Subject: Re: Pinard stethescope
To: [log in to unmask]
> Adolphe Pinard was a French obstetrician..
> http://fn.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/91/3/F231
>
> Best wishes, Alison
>
> Alison Macfarlane
> Department of Midwifery
> City University
> 24 Chiswell Street
> London EC1Y 4TY
> Phone (0) (44) 207 040 5832
> Fax (0) (44) 207 040 5866
> Email [log in to unmask]
> -----Original Message-----
> From: A forum for discussion on midwifery and reproductive health
> research. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> Annette Dalsgaard Vilain
> Sent: 28 August 2007 14:32
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Pinard stethescope
>
> From Jette Aaroe Clausen to the ICM Reseach List:
>
> Thank to all of you, who answered my questions about the use of stethoscope.
>
> As I understand it now, the Pinard stethoscope is/was the most used
> stethoscope in obstetrics and midwifery. It is named after Aldolfo
> Pinard a famous English doctor. The english short version of the
> Pinard, is very much like the version introduced by Pinard. Today the
> word Pinard is used in a more broad sense, and do also include longer
> versions, and different material. The stethoscope come in different
> lengths and it can be made of wood, plastic and metal. The Stethoscope
> used in England today is shorter that the one used in Denmark an
> dother nordic countries. English stethoscopes in made of metal or
> plastic (Tina Harris), in the Nordic countries they are traditionally
> long and made of wood (Beatrice Hogg). A different kind of stethoscope
> was invented by a American doctor De Lee (Jo Ann Davis). I wonder if
> this stethoscope is/has been used by American midwifes/obstetrical
> nurses? I have never seen a De Lee stethoscope in an European context.
>
> Jo Ann Davis tells that the Pinard has and is the symbol of the
> alternative birth movement in the seventies (and many midwifery
> organisations use it as there symbol, such as Radical Midwifes in
> England). Jo Ann: Was it not used before the seventies in the US? Jo
> Ann do you know of any research/articles that has described the Pinard
> as a symbol of the alternative birth movement? I have search the
> literature, and I have talked to a Liberian, but we dident`t succeed
> in finding such a reference.
>
> Dolores Carbonneau and Jo Ann Davis, made me aware of the fact,that
> midwifes use other stethoscopes than the Pinard. Dolores amazed me
> with her creativity, -joining as I understand it -two different kinds
> of stethoscopes to create a stethoscope suitable for teaching
> purposes. How to teach to use the stethoscope has since early times
> been discussed. Landouzy already in 1841 described a teaching
> stethoscope suitable for several listener at one time (Blaufox). I
> have never in a Danish context seen such stethoscopes in practice, and
> never heard of such stetoscopes being used in the teaching of
> midwifery students. I wounder it this is normal educational practice
> in some of your countries/laborwards or is it only individuals as
> Dolores that use such instrument?
>
>
> This link shows different kinds of stethoscopes.
> http://www.1cascade.com/category.aspx?categoryID=91
>
> And here is a picture of a sklar leff stethoscope, mentioned by Delores
> http://www.1cascade.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=0196
>
> The text to comes with this picture proclaims, that this stethoscope
> is preferred by midwifes. I have never seen such a stethoscope in
> Denmark nor in any labourward that I visited in several European
> countries. Do you know of countries where this stethoscope has been
> the one preferred by midwifes?
>
> Another source for those with special interest in history is a little
> book by Kergaradec, who was the French doctor who brought the
> stethoscope into pregnancy i 1821. His book was translated into German
> in 1822. It is a translation from French, so you should be able to
> find it. Ueber die Auskultation (das Hören) in Beziehung auf die
> Schwangerschaft, oder Untersuchungen über zwei neue Zeichen, mittelst
> deren man mehrere Umstände des Schwangeschaftszustandes erkennen kann
> : aus dem Französischen übersetzt / von J.A. Lejumeau de Kergaradec. -
> Weimar, 1822. - 34 s. It is interesting to note, that Kergaradec found
> the sound of the fetal hearh by accident, he had no intention to use
> it for this purpose, rater he thought that he could hear the fetus
> splashing in the water, and localize the site of the placenta
>
>
> If any of you should like to know more about stethoscopes, I have
> recently got this book: M Donald Blaufox: An illustrated history of
> the evolution of the stethoscope. Here you can also find references to
> early work on how the interpreted the foetal hearth sound. There was
> also several early German references on this issue.
>
>
>
> All the best
>
> Jette Aaroe Clausen
> PS: A collegue of mine Annette Dalsgaard will send this mail, after I
> had a new mailsystem, I still receive mails from the list, but it will
> not allow me to send answers.
>
> Jette Aaroe Clausen
> Jordemoderlærer / Midwifery Lecturer
> MHH (Master in Health Humanities)
> CVU Øresund
> Jordemoderuddannelsen/ Faculty of Midwifery Sigurdsgade 24
> 2200 København N/ Copenhagen Danmark/Denmark
>
>
> Ph.d. Student
> STS Center
> Institute of Information and Media, Århus University, Denmark
>
> e-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
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