Charlotte von Siebold: Midwife of Victoria and Albert
- Mar 30, 2024
- 5 min read
Today we are surrounded by male and female doctors who can all offer a range of experience and knowledge. For any women in the process of pregnancy or labour, it is a worry as to who is around you, looking after you and your child. For royal women at this time, it was common to be attended on by male royal physicians, but for Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duchess of Kent, she somewhat broke with that tradition by having a German midwife, Charlotte von Siebold, who was more than qualified to be attending the birth of the all-important heir to the British throne. Who was this midwife and what exactly made her so pioneering?
Charlotte von Siebold was born as Mariane Theodore Charlotte Heiland in September 1788, but was always known as Charlotte. Her father died when she was young and her mother, Regina Josepha, remarried to the doctor Johann Theodore Damian von Siebold, who adopted his new wife’s two girls from her first marriage. It was in this environment that both Regina and her daughter, Charlotte, were actively encourage to participate in Johann’s practice. Regina herself was hands on with patients and became a doctor and obstetrician in her own right, qualifying just a few years before Charlotte would later do.
Before all this though, Charlotte, as a teenager, was allowed access to the anatomy and physiology books, as well as practical lessons. In 1811, she began attending lectures on obstetrics at Gottingen University given by the leading obstetrician, Johann Friedrich Osiander. Three years later, Charlotte received her license to practice from the Grand Ducal Medical College in Darmstadt, meaning she could now take on her own patients. Her pool of patients grew just a year later when her mother had a carriage accident, leaving her unable to look after her clients, albeit possibly briefly. Still, this was Charlotte’s chance to build up a reputation for herself in a physical capacity.
In 1817, Charlotte was awarded a doctorate based on her 23-page paper on ectopic pregnancy and the issues for both mother and doctor that this possessed. Her former tutor, Osiander, openly criticised the paper by saying “pregnancy became women better than writing about that condition”. Obviously not a glowing review from him then! That didn’t stop patients from recommending her services though, which is perhaps more important. Charlotte’s first high profile birth was that of Prince Ernest, the elder brother of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s future husband, in June 1818. Once the heir to Saxe-Coburg had been safely delivered, other prominent German families came forward as patients.
The year of 1819 was probably the pinnacle of Charlotte’s career as she delivered two more important babies, who’s lives would be forever linked, that of the then Princess Alexandrina Victoria, who would grow up to be Queen Victoria, and Prince Albert, her future husband. As many prominent German families had already used Charlotte’s services, it is clear this was how the German born Victoria, Duchess of Kent, learnt of Charlotte’s good reputation. Charlotte was brought over to assist the birth at Kensington Palace and the pressure was on. George IV was heirless. His only daughter, the much loved Princess Charlotte, had died after a terrible labour and birth of a stillborn child just a year before. She had been attended by male royal physicians, which were seen as to blame for the events.
The Duchess of Kent must have thought that by bringing in an accomplished female midwife would help in her own labour in May 1819. As tradition stated, two male royal physicians were in attendance in case they were needed. They were Dr David Daniel Davis, a Welsh doctor who was part of a royal maternity charity, and Dr Wilson, the personal physician of the Duke of Kent, who had been with the Duchess for much of the pregnancy.
After the safe delivery of Princess Alexandrina Victoria, rumours abounded that whilst Charlotte had helped to deliver the child, there had been complications in labour, which meant Dr Davis had had to intervene. These were not true, for Charlotte had excitedly announced from the delivery room that the child was a beautiful, but rather chubby little girl. Within three months, Charlotte was back in Germany delivering Prince Albert in August 1819.
Even after these important births, Charlotte continued her work, even after marrying Andreas August Heidenreich, a doctor at the Darmstadt military hospital in 1829. Not only did she continue to deliver babies herself, she taught other female midwives and patronised charity hospitals. Nor did she only deal with upper class births, Charlotte was always concerned with the experiences poor women had to deal with in labour, often having to give birth in awful and dirty conditions. For this reason, she took her findings and concerns to the relevant authorities.
In 1845, Charlotte proposed the idea for a new state maternity hospital that would provide adequate and clean services for poor women to give birth in. This opened the same year under the direction of her and her now elderly mother. By a twist of fate, the same year the hospital opened, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited Germany. Their old midwife was presented to them, which must have been an emotional meeting for all involved. From this meeting, both Victoria and Albert offered financial supporters and patrons of the hospital.
The hospital remained Charlotte’s focus until her death in 1859, but it continued long after, only closing in 1948. In that time, it is impossible to number how many births the institution would have seen, all thanks to Charlotte’s work. She is remembered in many other ways, especially in Darmstadt where she practiced for most of her life. Today, Charlotte is honoured in her former university at Gottingen, where a program named Heidenreich von Siebold after her has supported female scientists towards becoming university lecturers. Thankfully her legacy has meant that she has had the last say when it comes to her former tutor’s criticism that “pregnancy became women better than writing about that condition”, especially as she not only wrote, but safely delivered babies and looked after their mothers for a great many years, just as the hospital she set up continued for nearly 90 years after her own death.
Marilyn Ogilvie and Joy Harvey (eds), The Bibliographic Dictionary of Women in Science, Volume 2 (New York and London: Routledge, 2000), p. 1193.
Alumni Gottingen, ‘The Queen’s Midwife’, https://www.alumni-goettingen.de/news/geburtshelferin-der-queen-geschichtsstunde/?lang=us
Helen Rappaport, ‘Charlotte von Siebold: The Pioneering German midwife who delivered the future Queen Victoria’, https://helenrappaport.com/queen-victoria/charlotte-von-siebold-midwife-delivered-queen-victoria/
Ibid
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Ibid; The Bibliographic Dictionary of Women in Science, p. 1193.
Helen Rappaport, ‘Charlotte von Siebold’
Alumni Gottingen, ‘The Queen’s Midwife’
Helen Rappaport, ‘Charlotte von Siebold’
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