Early 18th century French obstetric textbook.
نویسنده
چکیده
Angelique Marguerite Le Boursier du Coudray was a certificated midwife working in Paris from 1740. King Louis XV and his ministers were concerned with the declining birthrate in France, so Madame du Coudray was, according to the script beneath her portrait ‘pensioned and sent by the King to teach the practice of midwifery throughout the realm’. Between 1760 and 1783 du Coudray travelled most of provincial France, instructing local women in the practice of childbirth. These local women who had the exclusive role of midwife did not always welcome her. To facilitate her teaching methods, du Coudray wrote a textbook in simple language and included illustrations (Figs 1–3), which were colour-coded to assist the learning process. This book was the first obstetric textbook to use colour-printed plates. She also devised a palpable life-size birthing mannekin, made of leather, fabric and bone to assist with her teaching. This innovative model was the first lifesized mannekin to be used for this purpose. Du Coudray’s teaching methods resulted in reduced infant and maternal mortality, and a better knowledge of both normal and abnormal pregnancies. She also trained teachers to continue her work in their local area. While researching for this commentary on du Coudray, it soon became apparent that until Nina Rattner Gelbart’s ‘The Kings’s Midwife’ was published in 1998, there was very little information available about her. No acknowledgement had been made in the histories of medicine or obstetrics of the significant and pioneering role du Coudray made in the education of midwives.
منابع مشابه
Digitizing 18th-Century French Literature: Comparing transcription methods for a critical edition text
We compare four methods for transcribing early printed texts. Our comparison is through a case-study of digitizing an eighteenthcentury French novel for a new critical edition: the 1784 Lettres taı̈tiennes by Joséphine de Monbart. We provide a detailed error analysis of transcription by optical character recognition (OCR), non-expert humans, and expert humans and weigh each technique based on ac...
متن کاملEarly use of simulation in medical education.
An oft-cited belief that, until recently, simulators used in education of health care professionals were simple models is wrong. Hundreds of years ago and, in one instance, thousands of years ago, intricate models were used to help teach anatomy and physiology and in training in obstetrics and many surgical disciplines. Simulators were used to learn skills before performing them on patients and...
متن کاملTHE TRAGIC DEATH OF EDOUARD MANET The French Pioneer Impressionist Painter in the 19th Century: A Psychoanalytical glance to the Psycho-physical Disturbances, Personality Characteristic, the Personal Life & the Arts
Edouard Manet (1832-1883), the pivotal French painter in transition from Realism to Impressionism – modern-life subjects – primed a colossal deviation in the world of painting at the turning point of the 18th century to the 19th century in France. This paper will psychoanalytically explore Manet’s disturbed life and disarrayed course of development, psycho-physi...
متن کاملChronicle of Datura Toxicity in the 18th and 19th Century
Background: Datura stramonium is a poisonous and common flowering plant that is a member of the Solanacae family. Datura poisonings are a rare occurrence in the 21st century, making toxicological information on this plant sparse. Historical information on Datura provides useful information on the clinical symptoms and characteristics of poisonings. This review looks at the state of knowledge on...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید
ثبت ناماگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید
ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- The Australian & New Zealand journal of obstetrics & gynaecology
دوره 43 4 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2003