[Baptism out of necessity--a medico-historiografic view].

Baptism of necessity of life-threatened newborns was proclaimed by church law and related midwifery regulations from the second half of the 16th century. Midwives were for centuries the only lay persons attending the pregnant woman, parturient woman and newborn, so they were obliged to baptize newborns with life-threatening conditions, which were rather common and associated with high mortality in those times. Medical historiography has demonstrated this obligation of midwives in the town of Bjelovar and its surroundings, where parish registers of births, marriages and deaths contain data on numerous newborns baptized out of necessity.