Louise Bourgeois - A French Midwife called
"The Scholar" 1563 - 1636
"As early as 1560, Parisian midwives had to pass a licensing examination
and abide by regulations to practice. Not all midwives had this level of
education, however. English midwives received little formal training and
weren't licensed until 1902. America inherited the English model of
midwifery."
(Source: Kid's Health)
Louise Bourgeois (1563 - 1636)
Louyse Bourgeois (1563-1636) was the
most famous midwife (a person, historically female, who helps other women
give birth) of her time. As one of the first educated and medically trained
midwives, she raised her profession to a new level of competence and
promoted the spread of that competence through her widely read books
recounting her observations and experiences.
Bourgeois, a woman of the middle class, acquired some of her medical
knowledge from her husband, an army surgeon. She was also fortunate to be
one of the first graduates of the new school for midwives at the Hotel Dieu
Hospital in Paris, France. At the school, she may have studied under
pioneering surgeon Ambroise Paré (1510-1590; famous for researching and
improving amputation procedures). Bourgeois developed a very large and
successful practice, especially among the French aristocracy. She attended
the birth of the future King Louis XIII (ruled France from
1610-1643)—reportedly saving the newborn from suffocating—as well as the
five other deliveries of Marie de Medici, wife of Henry IV (ruled France
from 1553-1610).
Ambroise Pare
Since Bourgeois' popularity rested mostly on successful deliveries, her
reputation suffered a bit when she was held responsibile in the death of the
queen's daughter-in-law, the Duchesse d'Orleans. The Duchesse died from
peritonitis (a bacterial infection) following a delivery in 1627. Despite
this setback, Bourgeois remained fairly influential and successful (although
she never received the pension King Henry had promised her).
Bourgeois advanced obstetrical (childbirthing) knowledge with her
observations about the importance of detachment of the placenta (the bag of
fluids that the baby lives in while inside the mother's uterus that is
expelled by the mother after birth). If the placenta is not expelled, the
mother may hemorrhage (die of uncontrolled bleeding). Bourgeois may have
been the first midwife to write books about her specialty, the most
important of which was Observations diverses sur la sterilite ("Observations
on Infertility"), published in 1626. (Source:
Medical Discoveries)
"She was the first midwife to publish a book on obstetrics and the
first to publish on midwifery."
(Source:
Louyse Bourgeois and the emergence of modern midwifery)
"Louyse (or Louise) Bourgeois (c. 1563 - 1636)
was a medical pioneer who paved the way for the modern profession of nurse -
midwifery. As royal midwife in the early 16th century to King Henry IV of
France and his wife Marie de Médicis, Bourgeois raised midwifery from
folklore to science. For many years she delivered the babies of the top
echelons of the French aristocracy, accumulating knowledge of the anatomy of
childbirth and asserting the value of the knowledge of midwives as compared
with that of the male surgeons who controlled the childbirth setting.
Possessed of strong scientific instincts, she wrote voluminously, making
important contributions to obstetrics. But at the root of her methods were
common - sense convictions: each birth, she felt, was an individual
experience unlike any other, and natural processes ought to be trusted, with
birth attendants in most cases intervening, if at all, only to help nature
along.
Information about Bourgeois and her life survives mostly in fascinating and
fragmentary scenes derived from her own writing; she never penned a formal
memoir apart from a summary of her career she wrote in the course of her
defense against a 1627 malpractice charge, and public records of her are
sketchy. She was born in France around 1563. Not much is known about her
childhood, but since she was taught to read and write it is assumed that her
family was at least of middle - class status. She spoke only French,
however, not the Latin of highly educated French nobles. In 1584 Bourgeois
married Martin Boursier, an army surgeon and barber (the two professions
were closely related through centuries of European culture). Boursier had
studied medicine with Ambroise Paré, one of the top surgeons of the day, and
she may well have absorbed practical medical knowledge from him directly.
The young couple had three children and seemed headed toward a comfortable
existence in the town of Saint - Germain outside Paris.
A civil war raged, however, between supporters of the French crown and those
of Henry of Navarre, soon to become King Henry IV, and this completely
disrupted the lives of Bourgeois and her family. During an attack by Henry's
army on the outskirts of Paris on October 31, 1589, Bourgeois and her
children were forced to run from their house into the city, taking with them
only what they could carry. They eventually reunited with Boursier, who had
been treating wounded soldiers on the front lines, but amid the chaos he had
few financial prospects. The family was forced to sell off its few remaining
possessions to survive, and Bourgeois turned to the needlework she had
learned as a girl in order to put food on the table.
Did You Know?
The word "midwife" comes from
Old English and means "with woman." Midwives have helped women
deliver babies since the beginning of history. References to
midwives are found in ancient Hindu records, in Greek and Roman
manuscripts, and even in the Bible.
A Roman carving of a midwife at a birth
(Isola Dell's Sacra, Ostia,
1st Century AD).
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Turned to Midwifery
She soon found a second source of income. The midwife who had been present
at the birth of one of Bourgeois' own children told her that if she had been
able to read and write like Bourgeois, she could have done wonders with her
talent. Seeing a need for the services of a midwife among the women of her
densely packed Paris neighborhood, Bourgeois started reading about
childbirth. She studied the writings of her husband's teacher Paré, and her
husband was often on hand if she had questions. She started out by offering
her services to the wife of a local porter, and over a five - year period
beginning in 1593 or 1594 she attended the births of numerous working -
class women around Paris.
The lore of midwifery at the time was mostly passed down orally, from woman
to woman, but Bourgeois had taken a more systematic approach in her studies.
With talents above the ordinary, she decided to try to move up in the
midwifery world. She sought certification as a midwife from the city of
Paris, which would permit her to attend the births of aristocratic women and
thus to be well paid for her services. These city - certified midwives made
up a small group; a register from the year 1601 listed just 60 of them.
Bourgeois submitted references and was examined by a panel consisting of a
doctor, two surgeons, and two certified midwives.
The two midwives on her examining panel correctly pegged the well - born and
well - educated Bourgeois as a potential source of strong competition, but
Bourgeois had developed a cutthroat competitor's instincts during her years
of scraping together a living amid fighting in the streets of Paris. She
passed the exam on November 12, 1598 and swore an oath admitting her to a
guild of midwives. Almost immediately, she began to find clients among the
wealthy, and some of them began to spread the word about her abilities.
Coat of Arms of Medici Family
After Henry IV married Marie de Médicis, the offspring of Italy's greatest
trading and mercantile family, the successful outcome of Marie's pregnancy
in 1601 became a matter of paramount political importance; royal marriages
were made in that era in order to build connections among Europe's powerful
families and to cement the political alliances they desired. Henry, at age
48, had produced no male heir. A midwife had not yet been hired to attend
the young queen, and Henry favored one Madame Dupuis, who had been one of
the hostile midwives Bourgeois faced during her 1598 examination and who had
evolved into her most feared rival.
Several ladies at court, however, argued in favor of Bourgeois, and they
were supported by one of the king's physicians whose own children she had
successfully delivered. Bourgeois cultivated a complex set of networks in
order to advance her own cause, and she received a good break when Marie got
wind of the fact that Madame Dupuis had delivered several of the king's
illegitimate children and made it known that she didn't care to be reminded
of those during her own labors. Henry finally acquiesced to his wife's
wishes, and Bourgeois was installed at the side of the pregnant queen at
Fontainebleau palace.
Louyse Bourgeois
Delivered Child of King and Queen
The throngs of visiting aristocrats pressing in from every side did not make
Bourgeois' job any easier, for one of the principles she advanced was that
the pregnant mother - to - be, whether queen or commoner, ought to enjoy a
stress - free environment. Nevertheless, all present were impressed by
Bourgeois' take - charge attitude, and thrilled when she predicted the birth
of a male child. The birth was a difficult one, during which Bourgeois had
to ask the king for permission to give the struggling baby a small dose of
wine from her own mouth. But her prediction proved correct when, on
September 26, 1601, the future King Louis XIII was born and flourished in
perfect health. Bourgeois would successfully deliver five more of Marie's
children before Henry's murder in 1610, earning about 900 livres for each
one (as compared with the usual midwife's payment of 50), plus a bonus of
6,000 livres given to Bourgeois in 1608 by the grateful royal family. In
1606 she was given the official title of Midwife to the Queen.
In her position as royal midwife, Bourgeois was in great demand among all
the aristocratic families in Paris, and her career flourished. She is
thought to have attended three or four births a week on average, and she and
her husband were able to purchase half of a substantial house in the Rue
Saint - André - des - Arts. Beginning in 1609, she began to publish her
accumulated knowledge of midwifery in book form. Her first book, whose title
translates as Diverse Observations on Sterility; Loss of the Ovum after
Fecundation, Fecundity and Childbirth; Diseases of Women and of Newborn
Infants, was her most famous. It was the first treatise on midwifery ever
written, and it was filled with practical information of a kind not to be
found in the few existing obstetrical texts. The book was translated into
Latin, German, Dutch, and English and went through several editions,
remaining in use until the early 1700s.
Bourgeois published two more books of Diverse Observations, in 1617 and
1626, the first of which contained a separate collection of "Advice to My
Daughter." She also wrote and published an anecdotal Collection of Secrets
in 1634. These writings made some important contributions to obstetrical
theory. Bourgeois, for instance, may have been the first person to
administer doses of iron to treat anemia, and her advice pertaining to what
is known as podalic version (turning the baby around in certain situations
so that it will be delivered feet first) became widely known among
physicians and midwives of succeeding generations. She offered medical
treatment to men as well as women on occasion.
Picture of French Court
Established Principles of Midwifery
But Bourgeois' greatest influence was exerted on the profession of midwifery
itself. Although a petition circulated by a group of Paris midwives to allow
Bourgeois to give a course on midwifery at the Hôtel Dieu hospital was
rejected in 1635, she had a number of students in addition to her own
daughter, and one of them, Marguerite du Tertre de la Marche, later became
head midwife at the hospital and formalized the training of midwives there.
Bourgeois' writings laid out the basic principles of midwifery that
practitioners of the art have followed ever since. She likened the midwife's
role to that of a ship's pilot, working with natural forces rather than
becoming ensnared in a futile quest to overpower them, and she laid out
various ethical precepts for midwives that remained well known and have
resonated down to the present day.
In her first book, Bourgeois praised doctors and extolled the virtues of
cooperation between physician and midwife, but as her fame grew she adopted
a more confrontational stance. Mention of doctors became rarer in her
accounts of cases she had attended, and when she did discuss the roles they
had played, she frequently did so in negative terms. She implied that one
doctor who had intervened surgically in a difficult birth had done so with
an eye to the fee he would thus be able to charge - an idea with a familiar
ring in the early 21st century. Although it is difficult to know exactly
what happened at a distance of nearly four hundred years, it seemed that bad
blood began to grow between Bourgeois and the doctors who operated at the
top levels of the Parisian medical world.
Things came to a head on June 5, 1627, when the noblewoman Marie de Bourbon,
wife of King Louis XIII's brother, died in childbirth as a result of an
infection that we would call peritonitis. An autopsy was ordered, and though
Bourgeois was not mentioned in the physicians' report that followed, the
infection was blamed on a piece of the placenta that had been left inside
the mother's uterus. Instead of letting the affair blow over, Bourgeois
launched a written attack on the autopsy panel, just three days later
publishing an Apology of Louyse Bourgeois that questioned the qualifications
of the doctors involved in the autopsy (and along the way communicated some
of direct testimony we possess about Bourgeois and her life). The doctors
responded with a pamphlet of their own, and the controversy put an end to
the period of Bourgeois' influence.
Not much is known of the last years of Bourgeois' life beyond the fact that
she published the Collection of Secrets. She also wrote poetry occasionally
in addition to her medical texts. Her husband Martin Boursier died in 1632,
and Bourgeois herself followed in December of 1636. Several of the couple's
children became involved in medicine and midwifery, but the larger legacy of
Louyse Bourgeois lay in the new depth of knowledge she had brought to one of
the world's oldest professions.
Books
Notable Women Scientists, Gale, 2000.
Perkins, Wendy, Midwifery and Medicine in Early Modern France: Louise
Bourgeois, University of Exeter Press, 1996.
Periodicals
Guardian (London, England), December 13, 1993.
Journal of Nurse - Midwifery, July/August 1981.
Midwives Chronicle & Nursing Notes, January 1971.
A
Documentary
Primary
Middle Secondary
Australian
Curriculum General Capability: ICT Capability
Australian
Curriculum General Capability: Critical & Creative Thinking
Australian
Curriculum General Capability: Literacy
Louise
Bourgeois had an amazing life! Retell her life [as a Midwife] in a
documentary using
Movie Maker and include the following events:
-
the birth of the future King
Louis XIII
-
the five other deliveries of
Marie de Medici, wife of Henry IV
-
the death of the queen's
daughter-in-law, the Duchesse d'Orleans
-
1584 Bourgeois married Martin Boursier, an army
surgeon and barber (the two professions were closely related through
centuries of European culture)
-
A civil war
-
She passed the City of Paris' midwife exam on November
12, 1598 and swore an oath admitting her to a guild of midwives.
-
In 1606 she was given the official title of Midwife to
the Queen.
-
Her writings
Material sourced from:
Answers:
Louyse Bourgeois (very detailed account -see above)
Medical
Discoveries: Louyse Bourgeois
Wikipedia:
Louise Bourgeois Boursier (1563 - 1636)
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