Marie Boivin

Marie Anne Victoire Boivin née Gillain (April 9, 1773 – May 16, 1841) was a French midwife, writer on obstetrics, and pioneering woman in the field of medicine.

She was born in Montreuil, and educated in a nunnery in Etampes, where her talents attracted the attention of Madame Elisabeth, sister of King Louis XVI. When the nunnery was destroyed during the French Revolution, she spent three years studying anatomy and midwifery. In 1797 she married a government bureaucrat, Louis Boivin, but he died shortly thereafter, leaving her with a daughter and little money. She became a midwife at a local hospital, and in 1801 became its superintendent. In that role she convinced Jean-Antoine Chaptal to add a special school of obstetrics. In the subsequent years she served as co-director or director at a number of hospitals, including the General Hospital for Seine and Oise (1814), a temporary military hospital (1815), the Hospice de la Maternité, and the Maison Royal de Santé. A work of hers on obstetrics, Mémorial de l'art des accouchements (1817), went through several editions. She was granted an honorary M.D. by the University of Marburg, and was invested with an order of merit by the King of Prussia.