User:JMGramajo/Louise Boursier

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Louise Boursier (1562-1636) grew up in Saint-Germain, France. She was considered part of the bourgeois class. However, after the sieges of Paris by Henri IV, Boursier was left to pick up odd jobs to fend for her mother and her three kids. This is what would eventually lead her to take up midwifery.

Boursier practiced midwifery amongst the poor for five years before attempting the exam for her license. It would only take Louise another three years after receiving her license to become appointed as a royal midwife.

As the royal midwife, Boursier was respected by the king as much as his own physicians. After the successful birth of Louis XIII, Boursier's name was pushed into the public light. With this momentum, Boursier would end up publishing books on pregnant women, medical theory, pharmacy, medical recipes, and diagnosing illnesses. However, as it was with being a woman, much less a midwife, her fame did not come without scrutiny or risk. When Boursier helped with the delivery of King Louis XIII's sister-in-law's daughter, the daughter was delivered successfully. However, a week after the delivery, the sister-in-law would die, and the backlash would fall on Boursier, ending her career.