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LaChapelle was born on 1 January 1769 in Paris, France. When she was born, the France was going through a major French revolution. LaChapelle’s mother was a experienced midwife, her father was a French health officer and also had some experience in obstetrics. She was an only child.
LaChapelle had learned the work of being a midwife by accompanying her mother. During some point of the time, LaChapelle went to Heidelberg to Germany to study under the great obstetrician named Franz Naegele.
After the death of her husband in 1795, LaChapelle devoted all of her time to the profession of midwife. In the year 1797, when LaChapelle’s mother died, she became the head of the maternity department in Hotel Dieu. She tried to bring in changes to the working but she was resisted by the doctor named Dr. Baudelocque who taught in the hospital. After much resistance, he allowed the use of instruments such as forceps to get the baby out of the womb.
After her studies with Franz Naegele and return to Paris, she became successful in establishing the labor management techniques. With these changes, it would make it easy to save the life of both mother and child during labor. She also got the technique to change the position of the fetus so that the instruments would not be needed or used less. She faced many obstructions on the way of the innovations and the changes she tried to bring in but she never gave up and went ahead getting the revolution she wanted to get in the field of obstetrics. She also trained hundreds of midwives in the field and ran a women’s and children’s hospital.
Jean-Louis Baudelocque and Lachapelle worked well together and developed a course of study for training midwives. She taught students of midwifery modern techniques for performing a delivery, by demonstrating potential complications with a model and autopsying women who died in childbirth.
She wrote articles recording her observations for the periodical Annuaire Medico-Chirurgical in 1819 and furnished statistics for the members of the conseil d'administration des hospices.
She died of stomach cancer in the year 1821.
Marie-Louise Lachapelle is generally regarded as the mother of modern obstetrics. During her entire working career, LaChapelle tried to transform the practice of obstetrics and tried to improvise the training undertaken by the midwives. LaChapelle became successful in establishing the labor management techniques. She also got the technique to change the position of the fetus so that the instruments would not be needed or used less.
Her greatest innovation lay in realizing the value of collecting statistics on great numbers of cases. She was the author of the famous work, titled Pratique des Accouchemens, ou Memoirs et Observations choisies, sur les points les plus importans de l'Art, Par Mme. It became a great source of information to all the midwives throughout Europe.
There is very limited information on LaChapelle’s ideas on religion but it can be stated that she was a believer of god.
There is no information of LaChapelle’s inclination to politics.
In her teaching, she stressed the importance of noninterference with the birth process unless it was absolutely essential and she opposed the use of forceps except in case of absolute necessity. She insisted that instruments should rarely be used and it should not be used to shorten the labor.
Physical Characteristics: Though there is very limited information on the physical characteristics of LaCapelle, there was a self-portrait that she left behind. As mentioned by Hurd-Mead, the picture showcased ‘ "an attractive woman in a Gainsborough hat trimmed with ostrich plumes. She wears a ruffled collar, immense puffed sleeves, an absurdly small waist, and an elaborate gown with beautiful laces."
Marie LaChapelle got married to LaChapelle who was a surgeon in the year 1792 but he died three years later because of some reason. LaChapelle had a daughter who eventually became a Roman Catholic nun.
