Padua, 1765: Luigi Calza founds the first centre for the study of obstetrics. Three years later, the first school of obstetrics and midwifery in Padua is born. These are important milestones towards protecting mothers’ health and making childbirth a safe event. While the presence of specialised staff to assist pregnant women is something we now take for granted, not enough care and attention was given to childbirth until the 1700s. However, the University of Padua started to invest in medical science for children in the 16th and 17th centuries, as shown by the publication of three books ‘On children’s ailments’ (De morbis puerorum) and the small pediatric treatise ‘Nomothelasmus, or the manner of breastfeeding children’ (Nomothelasmus, seu ratio lactandi infantes) by Girolamo Mercuriale, one of the leading figures of 16th-century medical humanism. An increase in the circulation of pediatric literature was followed by a century of innovation, with the first university course on the subject in 1882 and the opening of the first department of pediatrics in Italy.

Always on the side of women and children.

Knowledge is freedom.