Justine Siegemund

Justine Siegemund

Justine Siegemund (1636-1705) was a renowned German midwife whose "Court Midwife" (1690) was the first female-authored German medical text.

Early life

Strikingly, Siegemund herself was childless, which should have technically disqualified her from her profession, as only childbearing midwives were supposed to be able to practice. Had that been the case, however, seventeenth century Europe would have lost a consummate professional in her discipline.

She was born into a Lutheran minister's family in Rohnstock, Silesia, currently within Poland, but then on the eastern borders of the Holy Roman Empire, in 1636. Her father died in 1650, when Siegemund was aged fourteen. In 1655, she married Christian Siegemund, but the marriage was childless. However, it lasted for forty-two years, and Christian Siegemund provided considerable support to his wife during her professional career, although they may have lived apart from 1673.

Early Career: 1656-1672

At twenty, Justine Siegemund suffered considerably at the hand of incompetent midwives who wrongly assumed that she was pregnant. Her experience motivated her to educate herself about obstetrics, and she practiced herself for the first time in 1659, when she was asked to assist a case of obstructed labour related to a misplaced infant arm. Until 1671, she provided free midwifery services to peasant and poor women in her local area, although she also gradually diversified her client base to include women from merchant and noble families.

Professional Midwife: 1672-1690

Given her thriving midwife practice and expanding client base, Siegemund was called upon when a cervical tumour threatened Duchess Luise von Anhalt-Dessau, which she successfully removed, after male physicians called on her professional services. However, sexist professional animosities were never far away. In 1680, Martin Kerger, her former supervisor, turned on her and accused her of unsafe birthing practices. Unfortunately for Kerger, his own colleagues at the Frankfurt on Oder medical faculty sided with Siegemund instead, and it did not help that Kerger's own statements demonstrated that he lacked her practical experience-based professional knowledge of women's reproductive and infant anatomies and childbirth.

His groundless allegations did not affect Siegemund's professional employment opportunities, and Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, appointed her as his court midwife during that period. She also served as royal midwife for Frederick III's sister Marie-Amalie, Duchess of Saxony-Zeitz, and delivered four of her children. At the court of August the Strong, she assisted Saxon Electress Eberhardine to birth her son, Frederick August II (1696). At the same time, she attended other births within the Berlin-Colln area and its surroundings.

While in the Netherlands, Mary II of Orange (1662-1694) suggested that Siegemund should author a textbook training manual for midwives. Siegemund had probably already started to compile the "Court Midwife", however.

"The Court Midwife" (1690)

In 1689, Siegemund travelled from the Hague to Frankfurt on Oder, and submitted her draft manual to the Frankfurt on Oder medical faculty, which approved her medical documentation. She had incorporated embryological and anatomical engravings from Reiner de Graaf (1641-1673) and Govard Bidloo (1649-1713), which enhanced its practical utility. From April to June 1689, she protected her intellectual property stake in the volume through gaining printing privileges from the Electors of Brandenburg and Saxony, as well as the Holy Roman Emperor.

In Leipzig, she had to endure yet another bout of male professional jealousy when Andreas Petermann (1649-1703) charged her with similar offences to those that Kerger had already advanced, but given his own comparative professional inexperience, Siegemund once again was able to surmount this challenge to her professional reputation.

The "Court Midwife" was systematic and evidence-based in its presentation of possible childbirth complications, including problems like poor presentations of the umbilical cord and placenta previa. Siegemund rarely used early pharmaceuticals or surgical instruments within her practice. By the time that she died in 1705, Justine Siegemund had birthed almost six thousand two hundred infants, according to the Berlin deacon that presided over her funeral.

After Siegemund's death, the "Court Midwife" went through numerous republications, including Berlin (1708), Leipzig (1715,1724), with modifications that included corroborative male gynecological citations and accounts of the Kerger and Petermann cases when it was republished in 1741, 1752 and 1756.

Bibliography

*Lynne Tatlock: "Speculum Feminarum: Gendered Perspectives on Obstetrics and Gynecology in Early Modern Germany" "Signs": 17 (Summer 1992): 725-740.
*Lynne Tatlock (translator): "The Court Midwife": Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 2005: ISBN 0-226-75709-9


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Justine Siegemundin — (* 26. Dezember 1636 in Rohnstock; † 10. November 1705 in Berlin), auch Justina Siegmund bzw. Justine Siegemund, brachte es als Autodidaktin bis zur Hebamme am brandenburgischen Hof und schrieb das erste deutsche Lehrbuch für Hebammen… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Этаж наследия — «Этаж наследия» (англ. Heritage Floor)  композиция, составляющая единый объект с инсталляцией «Званый ужин» Джуди Чикаго, отдающей дань уважения достижениям и тяготам женского труда и имеющей форму треугольного банкетного стола на 39… …   Википедия

  • Midwifery — Midwives redirects here. For the novel by Chris Bohjalian, see Midwives (novel). A midwife measures the height of the mother s fundus at about 26 weeks to determine the probable gestational age of the fetus. Midwifery is a health care profession… …   Wikipedia

  • Matrona — Una matrona o un matrón (el género masculino del término se incluirá en la vigésimo tercera edición del Diccionario de la Real Academia Española[1] ) es la persona que se encarga del cuidado de la salud de las mujeres durante el embarazo, de la… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Frauenheilkunde und Geburtshilfe — Frauenheilkunde und Geburtshilfe,   Gynäkologie, Teilgebiet der Medizin, das in der ärztlichen Weiterbildungsordnung festgelegt ist; es befasst sich mit der Verhütung, Erkennung und Behandlung der Frauenkrankheiten (einschließlich der… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Siegemundin — Justine Siegemundin (* 26. Dezember 1636 in Rohnstock; † 10. November 1705 in Berlin), auch Justina Siegmund, brachte es als Autodidaktin bis zur Hebamme am brandenburgischen Hof und schrieb das erste deutsche Lehrbuch für Hebammen (Erstausgabe… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Open d'Allemagne 2006 — Nom de l édition Qatar Telecom German Open Date Du 8 au 14 mai 200 …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Julia Goerges — Julia Görges Nationalität:  Deutschland Geburtstag: 2. November 1988 …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Porsche Tennis Grand Prix 2011 — Der Porsche Tennis Grand Prix 2011 war die 34. Ausgabe des Tennis Sandplatzturniers für Frauen in Stuttgart. Es war als Turnier der Premier Kategorie Teil der WTA Tour 2011. Das Turnier fand vom 16. April bis zum 24. April 2011 statt. Die vier… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Melanie Oudin — at Arthur Ashe Stadium during the first round of the US Open 2010 Country  United States …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”