One of the biggest revelations in the care of babies and very young children was the development of neonatal incubators that could help keep premature babies alive even if they are born too early to be typically considered viable.
Nowadays, neonatal care is a key part of taking care of babies, and many young children who end up in incubators will thrive thanks to the advanced technology.
However, this was not always an expectation, and it took a pioneering French doctor to develop a way to protect premature babies and stop leaving their chances of survival to chance.
The pioneer of neonatal care was Stephane Tarnier, a pioneering obstetrician who did so much to advance the field of pregnancy care in France in the 19th century.
Whilst other doctors had attempted to develop incubator cribs that focused primarily on maintaining a warm temperature, Mr Tarnier understood that the key aspects of neonatal care
involved not only warmth but also humidity, isolation and impeccable hygiene.
To that end, he adapted a machine previously used for the incubation of chicken eggs to create a prototype device that reduced the dangers of premature birth.
His device was a wooden box with glass lids and attached hot water bottles, focused primarily on maintaining consistent heat.
Whilst still a relatively primitive machine, it managed to reduce infant mortality by 28 per cent in just three years from its invention in 1881 to 1884.
By this point, Mr Tarnier was already an old man, so he left the development of the incubator to other people, which allowed the incubator to be developed further and match the needs of the child.
The main doctor to follow his work was Pierre Budin, who made significant advances in reducing infant mortality by focusing on nutrition, avoiding infection and prioritising breastfeeding or the use of pasteurised milk if that was impossible.