Louise Bourgeois (1563-1636) wrote Observations diverses sur la stérilité, perte de fruicts, foecondité, accouchements, et maladies des femmes et enfants nouveaux naiz amplement traittées heureusement praticquées in 1609, and it is one of our few texts authored by a woman. This text, which saw four reprints from 1609 to 1634, is the first printed work on the subject of the female body to be penned by a woman practitioner. Written while Bourgeois was stationed as the royal midwife to Queen Marie de Medici of France, it continues the trend of containing personal notes and additions that come from the author themselves.

Observations provides practical advice for other medical practitioners and instructs them on best practices as available in the framework of contemporary understandings of the female body, before, during and after childbirth. Midwifery was a necessary practice in 17th century France, but Bourgeois would have been aware of the criticisms aimed at women practitioners. After the death of Duchess Marie de Bourbon in childbirth in 1626, Bourgeois was accused of negligence toward her patient; whether these were unfounded criticisms or whether they held a vestige of truth, she promptly left the royal court. Bourgeois turned to criticise those who wrote texts pertaining to midwifery, without ever having practised it themselves or having an understanding of the realities of women’s bodies in pregnancy.

1609

1617