The Ladies' Medical College (renamed The Obstetrical College for Women) was a short-lived English medical college for women, established in 1864 by the Female Medical Society. It offered courses in midwifery and diseases associated with women and children, but failed to extend its curriculum to the full scope of medical training and closed in 1873.
The Medical Act 1858, which for the first time regulated the licensing of physicians in the UK and created the Medical Register, effectively barred women from becoming doctors in the UK by requiring physicians to pass examinations offered by any of 19 examination boards, none of which permitted the admission of women. The practice of midwifery was unregulated, and was undertaken either by self-trained working class women, or by male physicians. The male medical establishment, as a rule, opposed encroachment on what it considered to be its territory by women. [1]
Against this backdrop, a Female Medical Society was established in 1862 with a long term aim of enabling women to qualify as doctors, but with a shorter term focus on medicine applicable to women and children. At its outset, the society sought to raise the status of midwifery such that it could be considered a profession for educated women; to respect the feelings of female patients who preferred to be tended by female practitioners; and to save lives, both by the effect of better training and practice, but also by reducing infections introduced by male physicians who in their wider work came into contact with disease, surgery and post-mortems. [1]
In support of its aims, the Society established in 1864 the Ladies' Medical College at premises in Fitzroy Square, London, [a 1] initially offering a course in obstetrics and supporting and related subject matter, with a somewhat broader curriculum by 1870. From 1867 students gained clinical experience at the British Lying-In Hospital. 14 students entered in the first year of operation, 69 by 1867 and 84 in 1870. Notable students of the College include Isabel Thorne (who described its teaching as inadequate) and Matilda Chaplin, both of whom went on to be members of the Edinburgh Seven who in 1870 sought to qualify as doctors at the University of Edinburgh; Florence Fenwick Miller who traced the opposite journey, training in Edinburgh in 1871 and then taking a midwifery certificate at the College; [1] and Alice Vickery, first British woman to qualify as a chemist and pharmacist.
The medical profession, in general, reacted very poorly to the College, espousing various grounds in the British Medical Journal (BMJ): that the midwifery role should remain subordinate to the (male) physician; that the college provided a 'dangerously insufficient' training creating 'half-educated' female practitioners; or that the college aimed too high in serving educated women rather than working-class midwives. Feminist journals such as the Alexandra Magazine and English Woman's Journal were more supportive. [1]
That the College's ambitions were limited appears to have limited its life-span. Aspiring female physicians were concerned with access to the acquisition of credentials enabling them to be listed on the Medical Register, and these the College did not offer. As a result, it was not supported by leading campaigners for the medical education of women such as the Edinburgh Seven nor Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. In 1872, the Society renamed it The Obstetrical College for Women' and unsuccessfully sought funds to extend the curriculum offered; the College closed in 1873. Writing in a later period, Ray Strachey noted that the College was "a half-measure'. [1]
A year after the closure, the London School of Medicine for Women (LSMW) - unconnected with the Society and arising out of the experience and reaction to the Edinburgh Seven - opened in 1874 to provide full medical training, and the UK Medical Act 1876 enabled the medical authorities to license all qualified applicants irrespective of gender. The LSMW's success is noted to have overshadowed the Ladies' Medical College in the historical record. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Midwifery is the health science and health profession that deals with pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period, in addition to the sexual and reproductive health of women throughout their lives. In many countries, midwifery is a medical profession. A professional in midwifery is known as a midwife.
William Smellie was a Scottish obstetrician and medical instructor who practiced and taught primarily in London. One of the first prominent male midwives in Britain, he designed an improved version of the obstetrical forceps, established safer delivery practices, and through his teaching and writing helped make obstetrics more scientifically based. He is often called the "father of British midwifery".
The Edinburgh Seven were the first group of matriculated undergraduate female students at any British university. They began studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1869 and, although the Court of Session ruled that they should never have been admitted, and they did not graduate or qualify as doctors, the campaign they fought gained national attention and won them many supporters, including Charles Darwin. Their campaign put the demands of women for a university education on the national political agenda, and eventually resulted in legislation to ensure that women could be licensed to practice medicine in 1876.
In the United States, a Certified Nurse-Midwife (CNM) is a nurse midwife who exceeds the International Confederation of Midwives' essential competencies for a midwife and is also an advanced practice registered nurse, having completed registered nursing and midwifery education leading to practice as a nurse midwife and credentialing as a Certified Nurse-Midwife. CNMs provide care of women across their lifespan, including pregnancy and the postpartum period, and well woman care and birth control. Certified Nurse-Midwives are recognized by the International Confederation of Midwives as a type of midwife in the U.S.
The London School of Medicine for Women (LSMW) established in 1874 was the first medical school in Britain to train women as doctors. The patrons, vice-presidents, and members of the committee that supported and helped found the London School of Medicine for Women wanted to provide educated women with the necessary facilities for learning and practicing midwifery and other branches of medicine while also promoting their future employment in the fields of midwifery and other fields of treatment for women and children.
Dame Edith Mary Brown, was an English doctor and medical educator. She founded the Christian Medical College Ludhiana in 1894, the first medical training facility for women in Asia, and served as principal of the college for half a century. Brown was a pioneer in the instruction of Indian female doctors and midwives with modern western methods.
The presence of women in medicine, particularly in the practicing fields of surgery and as physicians, has been traced to the earliest of history. Women have historically had lower participation levels in medical fields compared to men with occupancy rates varying by race, socioeconomic status, and geography.
New England Female Medical College (NEFMC), originally Boston Female Medical College, was founded in 1848 by Samuel Gregory and was the first school to train women in the field of medicine. It merged with Boston University to become the Boston University School of Medicine in 1874.
Dr David Berry Hart FRSE FRCPE was a Scottish gynaecological surgeon and academic.
Matilda Charlotte Ayrton was an English physician.
Dr James Matthews DuncanFRS FRSE FRCP FRCPE LLD was a Scottish physician, known as a practitioner of and author on obstetrics.
Dr William Smoult Playfair FRCP was a leading Scottish obstetric physician and academic. In 1896 a trial, Kitson v. Plafair, found against him for a breach of medical confidentiality.
Fleetwood Churchill M.D. (1808–1878) was an English physician, known as an obstetrician and medical writer.
Elizabeth Nihell was an Englishwoman from London, who was a famous midwife, obstetrics writer, and polemicist. She was most famous for her outspoken stance against male midwives and for her publications.
A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery.
A nurse midwife is both a nurse and a midwife, having completed nursing and midwifery education leading to practice as a nurse midwife and sometimes credentialed in the specialty. Nurse midwives provide care of women across the lifespan, including during pregnancy and the postpartum period, and well woman care and birth control.
The Female Medical Society was a British social organisation established in 1862 to promote the employment of women to treat women and children, and to act as midwives. Under its aegis, the first medical college for women, the Ladies' Medical College was founded in 1864, albeit with limited aims and a short life-span.
The British Lying-In Hospital was a maternity hospital established in London in 1749, the second such foundation in the capital.
Obstetric anesthesia or obstetric anesthesiology, also known as ob-gyn anesthesia or ob-gyn anesthesiology, is a sub-specialty of anesthesiology that provides peripartum pain relief (analgesia) for labor and anesthesia for cesarean deliveries ('C-sections').
George Harold Arthur Comyns Berkeley was an obstetric physician, gynaecological surgeon and medical writer. Berkeley was most notable along with William Blair-Bell and Sir William Sinclair for creating the British College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Berkeley was also noted for his writing collaborations with Victor Bonney, the book A Textbook of Gynaecological Surgery that is still considered a medical classic. It was as teacher that he excelled.