From April 29 to May 24, the medicine library is organizing an exhibition entitled "Histoire de l'obstétrique et des sages-femmes" ("History of obstetrics and midwifery").
This is a major exhibition featuring heritage documents, museum objects loaned by Marseille's Conservatoire du Patrimoine Médical and panels tracing the history of obstetrics through the centuries.
Obstetrics is the branch of medicine devoted to pregnancy and childbirth. Long considered a "women's affair", reserved for matrons and "ventrières" who applied oral traditions and know-how, it had to wait for the development of anatomy in the 16th century to gradually become a medical discipline in its own right.
The health libraries invites you to take a journey through the history of obstetrics. From documents drawn from the heritage collections of the Medicine-Odontology library, and in particular the Villeneuve bequest (director of the Marseille Maternity Hospital for 40 years and first professor of obstetrics at the Marseille Medical School), to medical instruments on loan from the Marseille Medical Heritage Conservatory, step back in time alongside the men and women who have practiced childbirth throughout the ages.
Medicine library: Ground floor - exhibition area.
