From "matrons" to "midwives", the incredible story of birth!

INTERVIEW - Angélique du Coudray could be considered the creator of modern obstetrics. Before her, childbirth had been a woman's affair since the dawn of time, based on experience, without any logic of transmission and placed under the tutelage of doctors or surgeons. In the eighteenth century, Angélique du Coudray changed things by professionalizing the function of midwife, which would become a profession in its own right in the course of the nineteenth century. To understand how Angélique du Coudray revolutionized the practice of midwives, historian Virginie Girod welcomes Nathalie Sage-Pranchère, historian, archivist, paleographer, researcher at the CNRS and specialist in the history of midwives and Anna Roy, midwife, columnist, author and incarnation of the podcast "Sage-Meuf" produced by Europe 1 Studio.

Virginie Girod has arranged to meet her two interlocutors at the Musée de l'Homme, where the reproduction of Angélique du Coudray's "machine" is located. "Angélique du Coudray's machine is a reproduction of the female pelvis, from the waist to mid-thigh, it is designed around a woman's pelvis made of bone, fabrics, leather, springs inside, to have something as close as possible to the female anatomy," explains historian Nathalie Sage-Pranchère. It is this padded canvas mannequin representing the lower part of a female body, which allows Angélique du Coudray to train future midwives and doctors, to train them for the birth of children. A mannequin that has not aged, since it resembles in every way those that are used today in midwifery schools. "We have plastic mannequins, sometimes made of fabric, but nothing has changed, to practice childbirth, before we can train on women," says midwife Anna Roy.

In the eighteenth century, the time of Angélique du Coudray, there is still a real disparity between Paris and the rest of France on the quality of medical care. The capital has had a maternity hospital since the Middle Ages. In the countryside, there are no trained midwives as in Paris. It is the "matrons" who give birth to women: "It's a service network. Matrons have no anatomical knowledge. These women will evolve with popular knowledge," says Nathalie Sage-Pranchère. "In Angélique du Coudray's time, women had a 10% chance of dying when they were in childbirth, which was considerable: people died during childbirth, from infectious causes, from haemorrhage or because a child did not descend because the head remained enclosed in the pelvis," she continues.

Thanks to the Musée de l'Homme for its hospitality

Childbirth – Birth – Angélique du Coudray – Midwife – Louis XV

"At the Heart of History" is a Europe 1 Studio podcast

- Presenter: Virginie Girod

- Producer: Camille Bichler

- Directed by: Pierre Cazalot

- Composition of the original music: Julien Tharaud

- Writing and Distribution: Nathan Laporte

- Communication: Kelly Decroix

- Visual: Sidonie Mangin