François Mauriceau (1637 – 17 October 1709) was a French

obstetrician Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgi ...

. __TOC__

Life

Born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, he received his training in

obstetrics Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgi ...

at the

Hôtel-Dieu In French-speaking countries, a hôtel-Dieu ( en, hostel of God) was originally a hospital for the poor and needy, run by the Catholic Church. Nowadays these buildings or institutions have either kept their function as a hospital, the one in Paris b ...

. He was a leading obstetrician in 17th-century Europe — in 1668 he published, ''Traité des Maladies des Femmes Grosses et Accouchées'', a book that helped establish obstetrics as a science. It was eventually translated into several

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

s. He is also known for development of a classical manoeuvre of assisted

breech delivery A breech birth is when a baby is born bottom first instead of head first, as is normal. Around 3–5% of pregnant women at term (37–40 weeks pregnant) have a breech baby. Due to their higher than average rate of possible complications for the ...

(Mauriceau-Levret manipulation). He gave a description of

tubal pregnancy Tubal ( he, תֻבָל, ''Ṯuḇāl'', ), in Genesis 10 (the "Table of Nations"), was the name of a son of Japheth, son of Noah. He is known to be the father of the Caucasian Iberians (ancestors of the Georgians) according to primary sources ...

, and with German

midwife A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery. The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughout their lifespan; co ...

Justine Siegemundin Justine Siegemund or Siegemundin (26 December 1636 – 10 November 1705) was a renowned midwife from Lower Silesia whose ''Court Midwife'' (1690) was the most read, but not the first, female-published German obstetrical manual. Early life She was ...

1650–1705), he is credited for introducing the practice of puncturing the

amniotic sac The amniotic sac, also called the bag of waters or the membranes, is the sac in which the embryo and later fetus develops in amniotes. It is a thin but tough transparent pair of membranes that hold a developing embryo (and later fetus) until shor ...

to arrest bleeding in

placenta praevia Placenta praevia is when the placenta attaches inside the uterus but in a position near or over the cervical opening. Symptoms include vaginal bleeding in the second half of pregnancy. The bleeding is bright red and tends not to be associated wi ...

. In 1670, English obstetrician

Hugh Chamberlen Hugh Chamberlen the elder ( – after 1720) was an English royal physician, obstetrician and writer on finance. Life The eldest son of Peter Chamberlen the third by his marriage with Jane, eldest daughter of Sir Hugh Myddelton, bart., he was bor ...

tried to sell the secret of a specialized obstetrical

forceps Forceps (plural forceps or considered a plural noun without a singular, often a pair of forceps; the Latin plural ''forcipes'' is no longer recorded in most dictionaries) are a handheld, hinged instrument used for grasping and holding objects. Fo ...

to him. Mauriceau became disgusted that the Chamberlen family kept such an important development a secret, and accused the Chamberlens of common swindling. Mauriceau died in Paris.

Publications

* ''Les Maladies des Femmes Grosses et accouchées. Avec la bonne et véritable Méthode de les bien aider en leurs accouchemens naturels, & les moyens de remédier à tous ceux qui sont contre-nature, & aux indispositions des enfans nouveau-nés''...

Henault, d'Houry, de Ninville, Coignard 1668. *''Observations sur la grossesse et l'accouchement des femmes et sur leurs maladies et celles des enfans nouveau-nez''. Paris, Anisson, 1694.

References

''François Mauriceau''
@

Who Named It ''Whonamedit?'' is an online English-language dictionary of medical eponyms and the people associated with their identification. Though it is a dictionary, many eponyms and persons are presented in extensive articles with comprehensive bibliograph ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mauriceau, Francois French obstetricians 1637 births 1709 deaths Physicians from Paris 17th-century French physicians