Początki kształcenia akuszerek w Krakowie (1780–1805)
The Beginnings of Midwives Education in Cracow (1780–1805)

Summary/Abstract: Establishing midwives school of Kraków was inseparably related to the Kraków Academy reform conducted in the late 70s of the 18th century by Hugo Kołłątaj. In contemporary Poland, destroyed from inside and politically weak, nobody took care of providing the society with the school which would educate the future medical practitioners – doctors or midwives. Favourable conditions to establish such an institution occurred after appointing the Commission of National Education, the main responsibility of which was the education reform on all levels. With respect to the higher education, two universities were subject to the reform: the one in Kraków and the one in Vilnius. In Kraków, the modern, at that time, Faculty of Medicine was formed, as a part of which the Surgery and Midwifery Division was established. According to the assumptions of the initiator of the university model of medical education at the University of Kraków – Mr Andrzej Badurski, it was decided to initiate two or three-month practical courses for the female students willing to engage in midwifery assistance in the future. The school, from its early days, encountered various problems; the contemporary maternity clinic was equipped with only one bad for the newly delivered mothers, there was deficiency of so called clinic material i.e. women who would decide to give birth in public, the students could practice their skills, acquiring the knowledge was also a problem (male students had lectures in Latin, female students in Polish, since the first students were illiterate), because so far the Polish maternity terminology was unavailable. The first teacher, professor Rafał Czerwiakowski had considerable achievements with reference to the development of maternity education in Kraków. Thanks to him, the school developed gradually. The first years of midwives school, although very difficult, allowed to establish the institution which continuously provided education to midwives in almost entire area of Galicia for the whole 19th century.

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