The King's Midwife

This biography explores the life of an extraordinary Enlightenment woman who, by sheer force of character, parlayed a skill in midwifery into a national institution. In 1759, in an effort to end infant mortality, Louis XV commissioned Madame Angélique Marguerite Le Boursier du Coudray to travel throughout France teaching the art of childbirth to illiterate peasant women.

For the next 30 years, this royal emissary taught in nearly 40 cities and reached an estimated 10,000 students. She wrote a textbook and invented a life-sized obstetrical mannequin for her demonstrations. She contributed significantly to France's demographic upswing after 1760.

Who was the woman, both the private self and the pseudonymous public celebrity? Nina Rattner Gelbart reconstructs Madame du Coudray's mission through extensive research in the hundreds of letters by, to, and about her in provincial archives throughout France. Tracing her subject's footsteps around the country, Gelbart chronicles du Coudray's battles with finance ministers, village matrons, local administrators, and recalcitrant physicians, her rises in power and falls from grace, and her death at the height of the Reign of Terror.

At a deeper level, Gelbart attempts to recapture du Coudray's interior journey as well, by questioning and dismantling the neat paper trail that the midwife so carefully left behind.

The King's Midwife is a fascinating look into the life and legacy of a woman who made an indelible impact on France's medical and cultural history.