As parteiras-chefes da maternidade Port-Rroyal de Paris no século XIX: obstetras antes do tempo?

Abstract

Paris IV -SorbonneHôtel-Dieu, instituição parisiense que remonta ao século XIV, destinada a receber mulheres em trabalho de parto e a fornecer cursos para formação de parteiras. 2 Desde 1348, na realidade, temos referências, no registro das deliberações do Hôtel-Dieu, de uma 'ventrière' des accouchées -'cinta' para parturientes -e de uma ala especialmente reservada às mulheres que iam dar à luz. Ao mesmo tempo em que acolhia mulheres grávidas -que eram em sua maioria mães solteiras e mulheres casadas pobres, impossibilitadas de terem os filhos em casa -o Office servia de escola de formação para as futuras parteiras. A cada três meses, quatro alunas chamadas de 'aprendizes' eram formadas na arte dos partos por uma parteira-mestra.

Assistência ao nascimento na Bahia oitocentista

“…The book organized by Hilary Marland (1993) shows that in England, Germany, Holland, France, Italy and Spain midwives were missionaries, public figures, defenders of their status and their work and played an active role in their communities. Scarlet Beauvalet-Boutouyrie (2002) says that in the Port-Royal Maternity Hospital in Paris between the years 1795 through 1895, midwives sway over the surgeons and doctors, despite the growing importance of the latter in the field of obstetrics and in hospitals in the 19 th Century.…”

“…The midwives of the European trade were not a homogeneous social group: they came from different social levels and had various degrees of professional recognition. 10 However, they possessed a common profile: they were women of middle-age, married or widows; respected in their profession; with lasting careers; and nearly all had shared the experience of being mothers (Marland, 1993;Beauvalet-Boutouyrie, 2002). Their clients were women from different social levels.…”

“…20 Notable in the hospital was Marie-Louise Lachapelle who was responsible for the pedagogic organization of the course for midwives. She extolled learning through 'close observation of the patient', where the apprentice confirmed or not the efficiency of the therapy prescribed in the learning manuals (Beauvalet-Boutouyrie, 2002). The French sage-femme, that is to say the qualified midwife, rejected any association however remote with the old ventrières, or matrons, as the traditional midwives were known in that country (Brenes, 1996).…”