Marguerite Champendal


Marguerite Champendal was the first woman from Geneva to obtain her doctorate in medicine at the University of Geneva. She founded a center for distributing pasteurized milk for infants there, as well as an acclaimed nursing school.

Biography

Champendal was born on June 2, 1870 in Petit-Saconnex a neighborhood in Geneva, Switzerland. She was the third child of pastor Jacques Henri Samuel Champendal and Christine Elisabeth Roch.
She taught in Paris and Berlin, and then, against the will of her family, began medical studies in Geneva. In 1900 she became the first woman from that city to obtain a doctorate in medicine in 1900. Her doctoral thesis was titled, Des varices congénitales ''.
In Geneva, she was a contemporary of Dr. Henriette Saloz-Joudra, who had earned her medical degree in 1883 at the University of Geneva and became the first woman to open her own private medical practice in the city.

Medical practice

After graduation, she practiced in the popular districts of the city.
Based on what she had seen during a previous visit to Paris, a project by Doctor Gaston Variot called the Drop of Milk, Champendal created her own center in Geneva in 1901. There she arranged for the distribution of pasteurized milk for infants and as well as consultation services to help young mothers. To further help the mothers, in 1916, she published the Little Manual for Mothers with guidance for women with babies.
In 1905, having already spent one and a half years tending to women giving birth, she formed the school of nursing, Le Bon Secours. She directed the school until her early death in 1928. Champendal is remembered there as "a visionary and deeply modern woman."
She was a private doctor at the medical school from 1913 to 1919.
In 1918, Champendal earned professional status at the University of Geneva, the first woman to do so.

Death

Dr. Champendal died on October 25, 1928 in Geneva at 58, from a cardiac arrest.

Honors

In Geneva, a street bears her name, Chemin Doctoresse Champendal.