The French birthing room of the 18th century: a transformative space, transformed.
In 1760, a Parisian midwife, Madame Angélique Marguerite Le Boursier du Coudray, was commissioned by King Louis XV of France to travel to the different French departments, educating women of lower social classes in the practice of midwifery. She advocated for practices that were being developed in the hospital clinics in Paris that older country midwives would frown upon or reject. Only 15 years later, in 1775, the king also funded a male physician, Dr. Augier du Fôt, to create an all-encompassing “catechism” on the art of childbirth for midwives in the countryside. Together, the two royal missionaries would bring about a transformation in birthing practices in France. The birthing room, which was before occupied by the midwife and the individual in labor, was now open to male physicians with all the accommodations necessary to give him access to the body of the birthgiver. Consequently, the roles of laboring individuals in the space changed. This shift of the birthing room in 18th-century France reveals the origins of many practices still found in birthing rooms today. The transformation of this radically transformative space would forever affect the role of midwives, displacing them and the individual in labor to the background plan and foregrounding the authority of the male physician. In my research, I propose a reorientation of the birthing space that focuses on the perspective of the laboring individual and is supported by the midwives.