The present Google Doodle celebrates French doctor Madeleine Brès’ 177th birthday. Madeleine Brès, née Gebelin, was the first French woman to get a medical degree.
As the first French woman to graduate medical school and become a doctor of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris in 1875, she made notable contributions to women’s health and pediatrics.
A native of Bouillargues, simply outside Nîmes, Madeleine Brès discovered her passion for medication at eight years old. As a volunteer at a nearby clinic, she learned basic medical treatments from one of the nuns on staff.
Following various years in Paris, Madeleine Brès moved toward the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris, Charles-Adolphe Wurtz, to advocate for her enlistment in a doctoral program.
In spite of not having a formal higher education, Madeleine Brès’ application was acknowledged, and she was urged to accomplish the correct qualifications before affirmation. As a self-taught student, Madeleine Brès passed her baccalauréat exam and enlisted at the University of Paris (known as the Sorbonne) as a medical student in 1868.
Madeleine Brès successfully defended her thesis, De la Mamelle et de l’allaitement (Of Breasts and Breastfeeding), in 1875. At a time where wet nurses were employed by women of means, her work supported and encouraged natural breastfeeding.
Madeleine Brès then began her own practice in Paris, concentrating on gynecological and pediatric medicine. Her facility stayed open for right around 40 years, often dispensing with costs for working ladies and educated new moms on proper baby care.
In 1883, Madeleine Brès coordinated a medicinal journal entitled L’Hygiène de la Femme et de l’Enfant (Hygiene of the Woman and the Child), teaching ladies all alone biology, as well as on childcare and disease containment.
Madeleine Brès was a trailblazer in French medication and proceeds with today to be a model for each one of those yearning towards a career in medication.
During her career, Madeleine Brès worked as a professor of hygiene and trained headmistresses of nursery schools in the city of Paris. She headed the journal Hygiene of the Woman and the Child and was the writer of a few childcare books.
On a mission for the Internal Minister, Madeleine Brès left for Switzerland to study the association and function of crèches. On 28 May 1893, the first crèche in France was opened by Théophile Roussel, on Nollet Road, in the Batignolles district.
Madeleine Brès died at 79 years old, in poverty.
