Louise Bourgeois's Observations: The Earliest Printed Work by a Midwife

Valerie Worth-Stylianou,a Senior Tutor at Trinity College and the Mellon-TORCH Knowledge Exchange Fellow at the University of Oxford, has written a blog for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), which takes an in-depth look at one of the RCOG’s early printed books which featured at the recent Knowledge Exchange workshop hosted by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in partnership with TORCH and the De Partu History of Childbirth Group.

The book is a rare copy of the first edition of the Observations of Louise Bourgeois (1563-1636), midwife to the Queen of France (Marie de’ Medici, 1575-1642). As far as we know, the book, which appeared in Paris in 1609, was the first published work by any midwife. 

Read the full post at the RCOG Heritage blog.

 

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