Louise Boursier

French midwife (1563–1636)

Louise (Bourgeois) Boursier (1563–1636) was a French midwife and medical writer who served as a royal midwife at the courts of Henry IV and Louis XIII. Largely self-taught, she became a licensed midwife in Paris in 1598 and was appointed midwife to Queen Marie de' Medici in 1601. Over the next eight years, Bourgeois attended the births of the queen's six children, including the future Louis XIII. She remained a royal court midwife for 26 years. In 1609, Bourgeois published the first volume of Observations diverses sur la sterilité, perte de fruict, foecondité, accouchements et maladies des femmes et enfants nouveaux naiz, the first book on obstetrics published by a woman.

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