AHC: One Development to improve Infant Mortality Rates

Your challenge is to introduce one development that will improve (decrease) infant mortality in the pre-industrial world. We'll arbitrarily set that as beginning in 1800, for a nice round date.
 
If doctors and midwives start boiling everything and washing their hands infant and mother mortality will drop significantly. While I can't find the name of the specific doctor credited I believe that maternity ward mortality rates dropped like like a rock when people involved with delivering babies started washing up between patients.

Edit: Ignaz Semmelweis. Hand washing dropped the maternity mortality rates from 10-35% to close to 1%.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis
 
Your challenge is to introduce one development that will improve (decrease) infant mortality in the pre-industrial world. We'll arbitrarily set that as beginning in 1800, for a nice round date.

Washing and sanitizing hands before delivery? That made a big difference OTL, though it was in an era of professional and semi-professional doctors and midwives, who saw more patients and so who had more opportunities to spread disease. It may not make as much difference if its introduced earlier, I just don't know.

IMHO, though, improving infant mortality probably means increasing child and adult mortality. Population pressure means more disease, war, and starvation.
 
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