Art of Childbirth – A Seventeenth–Century Midwife′s Epistolary Treatise to Doctor Vallant: A Bilingual Edition
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A01=Cathy Mcclive
A01=Marie Baudoin
Author_Cathy Mcclive
Author_Marie Baudoin
Category=DNT
Category=JBSF1
Category=NHTB
childbirth
communities
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eq_anthologies-novellas-short-stories
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_fiction
eq_history
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eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
gender
Jansenism
knowledge
midwifery
networks
obstetrics
reproduction
work
Product details
- ISBN 9781649590787
- Weight: 414g
- Dimensions: 153 x 228mm
- Publication Date: 19 Jan 2023
- Publisher: Iter Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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The extraordinary story of a seventeenth-century French midwife and her treatise on childbirth.
In 1671, Marie Baudoin (1625–1700), head midwife and governor of the Hôtel-Dieu of Clermont-Ferrand, sent a treatise on the art of childbirth to her powerful Parisian patron, Dr. Vallant. The story of how Baudoin’s knowledge and expertise as a midwife came to be expressed, recorded, and archived raises the question: Was Baudoin exceptional because she was herself extraordinary, or because her voice has reached us through Vallant’s careful archival practices? Either way, Baudoin’s treatise invites us to reconsider the limits of what we thought we knew midwives “could be and do” in seventeenth-century France. Grounding Marie Baudoin’s text in a microanalysis of her life, work, and the Jansenist network between Paris and Clermont-Ferrand, this book connects historiographies of midwifery, Jansenism, hospital administration, public health, knowledge and record-keeping, and women’s work, underscoring both Baudoin’s capabilities and the archival accidents and intentions behind the preservation of her treatise in a letter.
In 1671, Marie Baudoin (1625–1700), head midwife and governor of the Hôtel-Dieu of Clermont-Ferrand, sent a treatise on the art of childbirth to her powerful Parisian patron, Dr. Vallant. The story of how Baudoin’s knowledge and expertise as a midwife came to be expressed, recorded, and archived raises the question: Was Baudoin exceptional because she was herself extraordinary, or because her voice has reached us through Vallant’s careful archival practices? Either way, Baudoin’s treatise invites us to reconsider the limits of what we thought we knew midwives “could be and do” in seventeenth-century France. Grounding Marie Baudoin’s text in a microanalysis of her life, work, and the Jansenist network between Paris and Clermont-Ferrand, this book connects historiographies of midwifery, Jansenism, hospital administration, public health, knowledge and record-keeping, and women’s work, underscoring both Baudoin’s capabilities and the archival accidents and intentions behind the preservation of her treatise in a letter.
Marie Baudoin was a seventeenth-century midwife. Cathy McClive is an associate professor of history at Florida State University. She is the author of Menstruation and Procreation in Early Modern France.
