Anna Tomaszewicz-Dobrska
Anna Tomaszewicz-Dobrska (1854-1918) was the second Polish woman to become a doctor, and the first female Polish doctor to practice in Poland.[1] She obtained her medical degree in 1877 in Zurich.[2]
Anna Tomaszewicz-Dobrska | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1854 Mława, Poland |
| Died | 1918 (aged 63–64) Warsaw |
| Occupation | Physician |
During her fifth year of study in Zurich she worked as an assistant to Professor Edward Hitzig (a German neurologist and psychiatrist) in the Institute for the Mentally Ill.[3]
After obtaining her medical degree she worked in Berlin and Vienna for a short time.[3] However, she was not allowed to pass the state exam, which would have given her the right to practice medicine in Poland, and she was refused as a member of the Polish Society of Medicine because she was a woman.[3]
She moved to St. Petersburg and passed the state exam there.[3] This allowed her to practice women's health and pediatric medicine within the Polish Kingdom and Russia.[3] In 1882 an epidemic of infection during childbirth broke out in Warsaw, and a few maternity shelters were opened; shelter number 2 (on Prosta Street) was given to Anna to lead, and she led it until 1911.[3] In 1896 she became the first to perform a Caesarean section in Warsaw.[3]
She was also one of the founders of the Society of Polish Culture.[1]
Further reading
Anna Tomaszewicz Dobrska: A Leaf from Polish Medical History by Zbigniew Filar. (Warsaw: Polish Society of the History of Medicine, 1959).
References
- Jennifer S. Uglow; Frances Hinton; Maggy Hendry (1999). The Northeastern Dictionary of Women's Biography. UPNE. pp. 539–. ISBN 978-1-55553-421-9.
- Edith Saurer; Margareth Lanzinger; Elisabeth Frysak (2006). Women's Movements: Networks and Debates in Post-communist Countries in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar. pp. 554–. ISBN 978-3-412-32205-2.
- "Anna Tomaszewicz-Dobrska". Archived from the original on 2015-01-23. Retrieved 2015-01-14.