Angélique du Coudray
Angélique Marguerite Le Boursier du Coudray (c. 1712 – 17 April 1794) was an influential, pioneering midwife during her lifetime, who gained fame when men were taking over the field.
In February 1740, at the age of twenty-five, Angélique du Coudray completed her three-year apprenticeship with Anne Bairsin, Dame Philibet Magin, and passed her qualifying examinations at the College of Surgery École de Chirurgie.
After Du Coudray demanded that the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Paris provide instructions to all midwives and midwifery students by signing a petition, she was accepted into the school.
[2] In 1743, the status of surgeons, who were all male, was raised and they sought to extend their role into the field of midwifery through denying instruction to female midwives.
To prevent harm to patients, and to maintain their professional standing distinct from surgeons, the medical doctors continued to allow women to attend.
[2] After the situation was solved and all midwives received proper training, Du Coudray became the head accoucheuse at the Hôtel Dieu in Paris.
This had become a political concern because a perceived high rural perinatal mortality, following from the deaths in the Seven Years' War, was depleting France of future citizens.
Each cost about 300 livres to construct, usually out of fabric, leather, and stuffing, and occasionally including actual human bones to form the torso.
The head of the infant mannequin has a shaped nose, stitched ears, hair drawn with ink, and an open mouth (with tongue) into which a finger can be inserted to a depth of 5 centimetres (2.0 in).
[a] This detail was important, as it allowed the midwife to put two fingers into the mouth, to facilitate the passage of the head in a case of breech presentation.
Le Nain, who had heard and learned a lot about du Coudray's childbirth courses in an exchange with letters with Ballainvilliers, was extremely excited about her arrival.
[15] In a new development, Du Coudray taught midwives to stop the practice, when an infant was delivered near death, of putting it to one side and focusing on recovery of the mother.
