Midwife to the Queen of France: Diverse Observations

Winner of the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women's 2018 Josephine Roberts Award for a Scholarly Edition published in 2017

Diverse Observations is a groundbreaking book available for the first time in English. Written by a midwife committed to improving the care of women and newborns, it records the evolution of Bourgeois’s practice and beliefs, comments on changing attitudes related to reproductive health, and critiques the gendered elitism of the early modern medical hierarchy.

"This edition makes an excellent contribution to scholarship on midwife Louise Bourgeois, who provides an incisive eyewitness account of a turbulent period in early modern France and a rare female perspective on the city of Paris from the “poorest she” to the world of the court. Alison Klairmont Lingo’s introduction, supporting notes, and medical glossary offer precious apparatuses for the presentation and interpretation of the text. Stephanie O’Hara’s translation demonstrates mastery of the scientific, technical, and colloquial vocabularies of the period, capturing the spirit of Bourgeois’s words while making them widely accessible."

-Susan Broomhall, Director, Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, The University of Western Australia

"The Diverse Observations of Louise Bourgeois is a fascinating and rare source on women’s lives and the history of obstetrics in early modern France. In vivid prose, Bourgeois leads us deep into the ups and downs of childbirth and her own discoveries as a celebrated midwife. Many thanks to Alison Klairmont Lingo and Stephanie O’Hara for this splendid translation and this wide-ranging introduction to Bourgeois, her writing, and her craft."

-Natalie Zemon Davis, Henry Charles Lea Professor of History emeritus, Princeton University

ALISON KLAIRMONT LINGO is Research Associate in the Department of History at the University of California, Berkeley.

STEPHANIE O’HARA is Associate Professor of French and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

REVIEWS
Early Modern Women 13.1 (2018): 209–212. Reviewed by Anne R. Larsen.
H-France Review, 20.3 (2020). Reviewed by Nina Rattner Gelbart. (https://h-france.net/vol20reviews/vol20no3gelbart.pdf)
Renaissance & Reformation 43.1 (2020): 215–217. Reviewed by Aida Patient.
Renaissance Quarterly 72.3 (2019): 1067–1068. Reviewed by Kirk D. Read.
Seventeenth-Century News 76.1–2 (2018): 56–59. Reviewed by Barbara A. Goodman.
Social History of Medicine 32.2 (2019): 414–415. Reviewed by Timothy D. Walker.