WOMEN OF LEARNING:  NAME INDEX  |   DISCIPLINES  |   PERIODS  |   FIRSTS  |   THE INVISIBLE LANDMARKS  |   FACTS  |   WOMEN'S STUDIES  |   FRONT PAGE
Photo: NBA LAIMI LEIDENIUS first female professor of medicine 1877-1938 Laimi Leidenius was the first female professor of medicine in Finland and in all of Scandinavia. The field of Leidenius professorship was obstetrics and gynaecology. She was also the first female professor and holder of a permanent chair at the University of Helsinki. Leidenius contributed significantly to the development of prenatal care, midwifery and maternity hospitals. Laimi Leidenius defended her doctoral dissertation in 1913 on the effects of disinfection on the postpartum bacterial content of the uterus. In the following years, she practised medicine, continued her research and made study trips abroad. She published a study based on animal experiments in the field of endocrinology (together with Professor A. Seitz) and a statistical survey of the occurrence and reasons for eclampsia in labour. Later she did research on uterine cancer. In 1925 Leidenius was appointed Docent of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Helsinki. Teaching obstetrics was Leidenius' true calling: a friend has characterised her as "first and foremost, she was an obstetrician". Leidenius, like many other physicians, was interested in the social issues of her time, especially mothers' welfare. In her early popular pamphlets she discussed morality and eugenics. Later she focussed on gynaecological diseases, pregnancy and labour, and wrote, for example, manuals for expectant mothers. She was active in the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare and its efforts to organise medical prenatal care. The first maternity clinics of the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare were established in Viipuri and Helsinki in the early 1920s. At the beginning of the 1930s, Leidenius played an active role in the planning of the new Second Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Helsinki, and headed the department until her death in 1938. In addition to all her scientific and welfare activities, she ran an extensive private practice. 1 2 3 4 5 1 Laimi Leidenius as student. Photo: National Board of Antiquities. 2 Laimi Leidenius with a microscope. Photo: NBA. 3-5 Pictures from a private collection of Anto Leikola. No. 4 is dated 1916 and the person with Leidenius is Arvo Ylppö.