The exhibition brings focus to the history of attendance at birth, from individual care to the foundation of medical delivery institutions in Prague. The greatest accent is put on the period between the 2nd half of the 18th and the 1st half of the 19th centuries because it was a period of cardinal changes in the attitude for providing help to women while giving birth. This was connected with the changes in the education of midwives as well as with the emergence of specialised physicians – obstetricians.
The real midwife Ludmila K. (1780–1860), a mother of eleven children who studied a midwifery course at the Prague university during the winter semester of 1824/1825, guides visitors through the exhibition. She was a student of Antonín Jan Jungmann, a founder of modern obstetrics. Later, Ludmila practised her profession at Tachlovice Manor which partly encompassed the area of today’s Prague; however, back then it was situated beyond the walls of Prague.
The exhibition presents a manifold evidence of midwifery and obstetrics professions, from various tools of midwives, teaching tools and medical instruments to documents, illustrations, and objects directly related to childbirths, women in labour, and their children.