Marie Boivin

French midwife who invented the pelvimeter and vaginal speculum, which are used to dilate the vagina and examine the cervix. She discovered causes of miscarriages and was the first to use a stethoscope to listen to the fetal heartbeat. Her books Mémorial de l’art des accouchements (The Art of Obstretrics, 1812) and Traité pratique des maladies de l’utérus et de ses annexes (1833, on diseases of the uterus) were important texts for medical students and midwives.

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Sophia Jex-Blake

In 1886 she opened the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women, of which she was dean until her retirement in 1899. She is the author of American Schools and Colleges, Medical Women and Care of Infants.

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Mary Ann Ball Bickerdyke

Caring for soldiers, she declared that the officers were sufficiently looked after, and she would work where most needed. And they were ardently devoted to “Mother” Bickerdyke.

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