Illustrated with some engraved plates printed in two colors, some in three colors, and some also hand-colored--an early example of color-printing in a medical book. After ten years as a midwife in Paris, Madame du Coudray was hired by King Louis XV to travel across France to better train rural midwives.There were political motivations for this; Louis wanted to boost a “declining” population, and more subjects also meant more capable soldiers. Unlike Queen Charlotte of England who chose William Hunter as the royal obstetrician, Louis appointed du Coudray, a woman, to train women. Madame du Coudray became the national midwife in 1759, earning 8,000 livres a year—equal to that of a decorated military general. Her book underwent numerous editions.

Du Courray invented an obstetrical manikin, or obstretrical "machine," a cloth covered fetus qnd female pelvis and womb that she used to demonstrate complicated birthing technics. This was analogous to the "machine" also invented around the same time in Scotland by William Smellie. Digital facsimile of the 1777 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.