Why a simple lifesaving object was shrouded in mystery for many years.
All prospective mothers want a straight-forward delivery and hope to avoid the use of forceps. However when babies get stuck in the birth canal during childbirth, forceps have undoubtedly saved the lives of many thousands of women. Their invention was shrouded in secrecy as Claudia Hammond discovered when she joined the medical historian Ornella Moscucci and Dr Lesley Hall, archivist at the Wellcome Library. They met in the Medicine Man exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London.
