Louise Bourgeois Boursier
Louyse Bourgeois ( also: Louyze or Louise Bourgeois, named after her husband, also La Boursier ) (* 1563 in the Faubourg St. Germain in Paris, ibid † 1636) was a midwife for 26 years at the French court and a pioneer in obstetrics. Marie -Louise Bourgeois broke with her midwifery book from the 12th century is of Salerno, written by the first doctor, Trotula obstetric textbook. Through the scientific documentation of the methodology of her profession, she prepared so the path of obstetrics from the Middle Ages to modern times.
Childhood and marriage
Bourgeois was born in 1563 in the Parisian suburb of Saint- Germain in a rich family into it. Near them lived Martin Boursier, a barber and surgeon Ambroise Paré and students of. Bourgeois married this on December 30, 1584 in the parish church of St- Sulpice, they lived in the years to continue in the suburb.
1589 attacked Henry IV, Paris; Bourgeois fled with her three children in the city walls, while her husband served as a field surgeon in the army. Bourgeois, provided as a single mother on his own, earned her living by sewing lace. This brought her but not much, and she decided at the age of 24 years to become a midwife. The medical skills she gained from her husband's documents, experience of their own births and court physician Paré.
Careers at court
On November 12, 1598 Bourgeois acquired the license and the certificate to practice midwifery. Your rival Madame Dupuis, who was also a midwife of Gabrielle d' Estrées had violently schemed against it because Bourgeois was unsuitable for the profession as a wife of a surgeon. The examination committee consisted of a physician, two surgeons and two midwives. She moved with her family in the Rue Saint- André des Arts, and drew up an excellent reputation as a midwife. After three years of practice, there she was appointed by the Queen Maria de ' Medici as a midwife, as she was known for her work already at the royal court. The Queen had Madame Dupois, proposed by the king nurse rejected because this also Henry's mistress had helped at birth.
As a midwife helped about Louyse Bourgeois Louis XIII. on the world. The scene was captured on a copper engraving, next to the Royal Council of State was present with 14 people. Between 1601 and 1610 helped Bourgeois Queen of all six births. This made her a well-paid confidant of the Queen, which she constantly accompanied in the last months of pregnancy. After Ludwig in 1601, these were: Élisabeth 1603, Christina 1606, Nicolas Henri 1607, Gaston 1608 and Henrietta Maria 1609 50 livres were the median income for a midwife in that time, but for each king's son Louyse Bourgeois received a premium of 500 livres for each daughter. 300. 1608, she was also granted a special bonus of 6000 livres. After the birth of Henrietta Maria Bourgeois asked for a pension of 600 livres per year and received by the King at least 300 livres.
In her " retirement " Bourgeois wrote now a textbook on midwifery, what she did to her pride as the first woman ever. They extended this work in several subsequent editions to new insights, and it remained for one hundred years the standard work on obstetrics. Bourgeois treated women continue, in her first book, she boasted to have assisted two thousand births.
When in 1627 the young woman also brought her to the world Gaston of Orléans, Marie de Bourbon, died at her first birth of puerperal fever (daughter survived ), Bourgeois defended against accusations after the autopsy. Your reputation at court declined thereafter, and they moved more than ever to the letter. She referred in her public apology scripture in their books that had already been translated into several languages. Later books of their treated also anecdotes from the child and birth room of the Royal Court.
Louyse died in 1636, two years after her husband Martin Boursier. The couple had five children.
Louyse Bourgeois was repeatedly exposed to hostile action: colleagues, she recognized not because they had a different career as a wife of a barber. In addition, they were in their books award valuable knowledge and secrets, which was passed in earlier generations of a midwife to midwife. The medical profession throughout Europe thus came to new insights and could in the aftermath interfere in the practice of obstetrics. Doctors at court again plotted against Bourgeois, when she presented a competition for their medical expertise. After the death of the Duchess of Orléans and similar incidents fell midwives into disrepute and were gradually replaced by physicians as obstetricians.
Bibliography
- Observations diverses sur la Sterilite, perte de fruict, fécondité, accouchements et maladies des femmes et enfants nouveaux naiz, Paris 1609-1626 in several editions, A. Saugrain - the midwives book
- Instruction à ma fille troisième
- Récit véritable de la naissance de les enfants Messeigneurs et Dames de France Paris, M. MONDIERE, 1626 ( Memoirs )
- Recueil des secrets de Louise Bourgeois ( medical recipes)
German translations
The literature research project VD 17 carries for Germany 17 Publications by Louise Bourgeois building notably issues of midwives book on: A gantz new useful and nohtwendig Midwives Book: Darinn of fertility VND Vnfruchtbarkeit the wives / term and premature birth / condition of the fruit in VND outside the womb / random Kranckheiten so want the baby's mother as concerning the child / as well dero cure and means / zusampt the Ampt a contraction mother or midwife is traded weitläufftig. ( the German translation by the Merian Verlag in Frankfurt 1626 ). Because of the high demands on the imaging itself took at least in Germany publisher of the book that could produce high-quality engravings at the same time. Thus, the German editions came from:
Medical polemic: Louise Bourgeois: protect speech or responsibility Frawen Loysa Burgeois / called Burcier / the old queen in France bestelten midwives / to save their honor again the report of several Medicorum and wound doctors außgesprenget to PARISS in open truck / Anlangendt the Todt high Princely female person in Franckreich; AUß the Frantzösischen into Teutsch over set. In: Biographies News superwomen. Merian, Matthäus ( the Elder), Franckfurt 1629 (Extract).