The name of Angélique du Coudray has been somewhat forgotten by history. However, this 18th century midwife was able to revolutionize her profession by developing the first “obstetrics mannequin”. A technical object that made it possible to train thousands of midwives across the kingdom and thus save many lives. Adeline Laffitte and Hervé Duphot tell the fate of the king’s midwife in a comic strip.
Her name was Angélique du Coudray, but she was anything but an angel maker. His nickname : ” The King’s Midwife “. In 18th century Franceth century, that of King Louis XV, it spared no effort to save the lives of parturients, and preserve the life, viability and health of newborns.
A daring midwife who did not allow herself to be counted, including by surgeons anxious to safeguard their prerogatives. A figure little known today, attentive and inventive, who designed an impressive “machine” exhibited today at the Flaubert museum in Rouen in Normandy – the first “obstetric dummy” in a way – with which she will have trained some 5,000 sages -women by criss-crossing the territory.
” The King’s Midwife » is the title of the comic strip which gave birth to our two guests: the screenwriter Adeline Laffitte and the designer Herve Duphot. The album was published by Delcourt editions.
Reporting : Marion Cazanove went to the Center Pompidou, on the occasion of the first exhibition devoted until August 7, 2023, to the English architect Sir Norman Foster, a major figure in world architecture, often considered a leader of the so-called “high tech” movement “.