The Uterus in Medical Discourse Between 1599 and 1626 in France: Physician, Surgeon, Midwife

Abstract

Our article is devoted to the female body and the uterus in particular, represented in an ambiguous way in the French medical discourse between 1599 and 1626. This discourse emanates from the doctor, the surgeon and the midwife at the same time. First, we analysed the passages dealing with the uterus transmitted by academic medicine. This literature has allowed us to measure the weight of the medical tradition in questions relating to procreation, where the uterus appears as the most mysterious organ of the female body. We then looked at the work of Ambroise Paré (1510-1590), a physician and surgeon who not only presented the means of relieving women during childbirth, but also instructed midwives on how to deal with various complications. Finally, we have studied some of the Observations of the midwife Louise Bourgeois (1563-1636) who could claim a real familiarity with the female body and with the problems arising during and after childbirth. After comparing these different discourses, we can conclude that the figures of the doctor, the surgeon and the midwife were all strongly influenced by the knowledge inherited from Antiquity. However, views vary within this medical hierarchy, as do the terms, recommendations and topics discussed. Each of the representatives, according to their rank and the contact they actually had with the female body, elaborated a discourse whose stakes undoubtedly went beyond the fate of the parturients.