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Abstract

Recent studies in the history of medicine have shown that the modern healthcare services of reproduction, mother and child health and newborn care date back to the second half of the 19th and to the first decades of the 20th century in Turkey. Institutionalization of the contemporary scientific medicine was in the making at this crucial historical turning point in the country that paved the way for modern healthcare services to become widespread in the society. It is remarkably important to mention, in this striking process, about the achivements of Prof. Dr. Besim Omer Pasha (1861-1940) who opened the first Maternity Hospital (Viladethane) within the School of Medicine in Istanbul in 1894, and conducted the teaching and training of modern obstetrics, gyneacology and midwifery in the School. One of the great many young people he supported in the professional career was Dr. Safiye Ali (1894-1952) who had been the first woman physician in Turkey. Dr. Safiye Ali Krekeller graduated from Würzburg School of Medicine in Germany on Ottoman State's account and turned back to country in 1921. She worked at the Drop of Milk (Süt Damlasi) Houses, the brand new mother and child healthcare clinics at the time which rendered not only curative but also population based preventive medical service. This study aims at introducing briefly the main features of Viladethane and Süt Damlasi by giving emphasis both on their role as pioneering institutions and also on their approach that gave priority to public healthcare in Turkey.