[2] There is little evidence on her earlier life before 1740 when she moved to Paris and married a man named Edmund or Edward Nihell, an Irish Catholic surgeon-apothecary from Clare.

The Hôtel Dieu in Paris was common hospital around this time, which taught midwifery especially by one famous midwife, Madame du Coudray, who was supported by King Louis XV.

[6] In 1760, she published her first book called a Treatise on the Art of Midwifery, which was a criticism of William Smellie’s methods of childbirth and his use of forceps.

Nihell's publication spoke about how instruments brought into the birthing room by male midwives were usually unnecessary and caused harm to the baby.

[6] Nihell believed that for an easy delivery, assistance from a midwife was all that was needed and for extreme situations all that was required was knowledge, experience, tenderness, and presence of mind.

However, Nihell fought back with anonymous publications, letters to the press, and a treatise titled The Danger and Immodesty of the Present too General Customs of Unnecessarily Employing Men-Midwives (1772).