Baudoin, Marie. The Art of Childbirth: A Seventeenth-Century Midwife’s Epistolary Treatise to Doctor Vallant: A Bilingual Edition. Ed. and trans. Cathy McClive

Thirty years ago, in her edited volume The Art of Midwifery: Early Modern Midwives in Europe (London: Routledge, 1993), Hilary Marland called for historical scholarship on midwives that saw them "as birth attendants, as women workers, as active members of their communities, as 'missionary' and political figures, and as defenders of their status and occupation against the invasions of male practice" (1).Cathy McClive answers this call.The Art of Childbirth tracks Marie Gosse Baudoin, a seventeenth-century French midwife, as a robust individual and active community member.Too often historians, when discussing early modern midwives, focus exclusively on their medical practice and conflicts with male practitioners.McClive, however, provides a penetrating glimpse into the world of an average-yet-extraordinary midwife in seventeenth-century Claremont-Ferrand.The Art of Childbirth centres on an epistolary treatise on childbirth sent by Baudoin in 1671 to Noël Vallant, physician and secretary to the famous salonnière Madam de Sable.Baudoin trained in Paris but worked for most of her career as head midwife and, eventually, as governess of the Hôtel-Dieu in Claremont-Ferrand.McClive opens The Art of Childbirth with a meticulous introduction that scrutinizes the treatise and Baudoin herself from various perspectives, covering expected topics such as early modern French midwives and their training but also religious communities, credit networks, material culture, translation studies, and critical approaches to the archive.A translation and transcription of Baudoin's letter follow this kaleidoscoping introduction.Both preserve the materiality of the document and marginalia through layers of notations, font changes, and formatting.Extensive footnotes provide further context.Many aspects of Baudoin's life are congruent with what we know about seventeenth-century elite midwives.She began life in the artisanal class and possessed some education.She trained in midwifery at the Hôtel-Dieu of Paris, as many before her had.She was a well-respected member of her community who engaged in conflicts and collaborations with medical men.But Baudoin

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