Care for mothers and newborns underwent significant innovations during the 19th century and, as a traditionally feminised profession performed at home by midwives, became the domain of qualified doctors. This was particularly true in large cities, but not in rural areas, where women were still giving birth with the help of midwives in the mid-20th century. The beginnings of institutionalised obstetrics in Brno are linked to the establishment of a maternity hospital, a foundling hospital and an orphanage at St. Anne's Hospital. Here, on Obilní trh, a maternity hospital was established in response to the insufficient capacity of this facility caused by the growth of the Brno agglomeration in the second half of the 19th century – the oldest building of the maternity hospital was put into operation here in 1888. A newly established midwifery school, i.e., a post-secondary vocational school providing education for midwives, also operated there.
Until 1900, women in Austria-Hungary were excluded from university medical studies, so women were only given opportunities in gynecological and obstetric care, where it was possible to work with only vocational training.
Obstetrics was thus one of the few areas of institutionalized medicine where women could find fulfillment. The existence of the provincial maternity hospital in Brno led to the establishment of a professional organization of midwives. Their oldest platform was the Association of Midwives in Austria in Brno, founded in 1906, whose purpose was to promote the material and intellectual interests of its members, provide support in the event of illness and death, provide legal protection in the exercise of their profession, etc. The association became an umbrella platform for midwives from Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia.
The association originally accepted both Czech and German women, but due to growing animosity between the two nationalities, the Central Union of Czech Midwives was formed in 1909 as a countrywide association based in Brno for Czech-oriented midwives from Moravia and Silesia. From then on, there were two very similar professional and trade associations in Brno, both dedicated to the development of midwifery skills. In 1908, a professional journal called Hebammen-Zeitung (Midwives' Newspaper) was published, with the subtitle "Organ of the Association of Austrian Midwives based in Brno." The first female doctors, graduates of Charles-Ferdinand University, began to appear in Brno around 1910. The first female doctor with a private practice in Brno was Dr. Marie Peigerová, who opened a private clinic here and established close cooperation with the Vesna women's association and the regional maternity hospital. Although we do not have even rudimentary research on this issue, it is clear that Dr. Peigerová focused on female clients and specifically on gynecological and obstetric care. This situation changed very slowly after the founding of Masaryk University in 1919, when the medical faculty became one of its founding faculties and gradually began to accept female students. The situation was somewhat more favorable in the social sciences, which were more open to admitting women, but even so, in the interwar period, unlike today, only a fraction of the female population attained a university education.
Hana Krutílková, Moravské zemské muzeum
