Anna Elizabeth Broomall (1847-1913) suffered name-calling, spit wads, and the anger of fellow male students in her battle to become a renowned physician of obstetrics.
Anna Broomall was born in Upper Chichester, Pennsylvania to a well-to-do Quaker family. Her mother died in her infancy, and Broomall was raised by an aunt and uncle. Her father, John Broomall, a successful lawyer, and later U.S. Congressman, sent her to private academies in the area. She, at first, wanted to become a lawyer, but no opportunities existed at the time to study law. Instead, she decided to become a doctor. Her father, a supporter of women’s rights, encouraged her to pursue this career.
In 1866, she enrolled in the Woman’s College of Medicine of Pennsylvania. She supported herself by working at the college, doing all kinds of heavy housework. In 1869, Broomall was one of nine women chosen to attend classes at Pennsylvania Hospital. The male students did everything possible to discourage their attendance. But the group of women persisted, eventually drawing the admiration and even apologies of some of the men. She graduated as a Doctor of Medicine in 1871.
Broomall then spent a year in Vienna and Paris studying obstetrics. When she returned she took a resident physician’s position at Woman’s Hospital of Philadelphia. At the same time, she taught courses in obstetrics at Woman’s Medical College.
To provide training for her students, she established one of the first outpatient maternity clinics, locating it in South Philadelphia, one of the poorest areas of the city. South Pole, as it was called, eventually became a full maternity hospital where over six thousand babies were delivered by 1911. She had an especial interest in the proper use of antiseptics, leading to one of the lowest mortality rates compared to other institutions of the time and showing that women physicians could successfully practice medicine at the highest level.
In 1883, she left the hospital to establish a private practice and began working as a gynecologist at the Friend’s Asylum for the Insane in Philadelphia.
Even though Broomall successfully lectured on obstetrics and did medical inspections in China and India, she struggled to get recognition for improving episiotomies, cesarean sections, and symphysiotomies in the United States. Although nominated in 1872, for years she was rejected from membership in the Philadelphia Obstetrical Society, finally being admitted in 1892.
One of her teaching methods attracted widespread attention. This was the holding of Mock Trials in which experts debated obstetric issues before a jury of students. Here are pages from the 1892 one on Infanticide.
Anna Broomall wrote several medical papers. The following excerpt is from “The Operation of Episiotomy as a Prevention of Perineal Rupture During Labor.” [Note: In selecting this paper, I am aware that its subject matter may not be to everyone’s taste, and that current medical practice has changed. However, it is important to recognize the writings of our women ancestors in their field of study. I will also note that having read some of the alternative methods being used by the male doctors of the time, Broomall’s selective use of the technique stands out.]
In the Woman’s Hospital of Philadelphia, in a period of two years, ending Nov., 1877, 212 women were delivered, all of whom were under my direct charge. Of this number, 101 were primiparous. I subjected the genitalia of each lying-in patient to a careful, ocular examination, and I noted conscientiously each lesion. Of the 212 women, 26 suffered perineal ruptures, of whom 21 were primiparæ and 5 multiparæ. The lesions varied in extent from a tear of the fourchette to a laceration as far as the sphincter ani. The rupture in no case involved the sphincter, and only in two instances extended as far as its margin. The patients were delivered in the side position, and the gradual and even distention of the perineum was favored by careful and systematic support of the fetal head in every case.
In 56 cases, when the perineum was unyielding, from simple rigidity or from a cicatricial condition, I incised the vaginal orifice, and in nearly all of these cases I demonstrated to others and satisfied myself that episiotomy saved the perineum. Rigidity of the perineum occurred most frequently in old primiparæ. In two instances, the perineum was unyielding from cicatrices, the result of previous laceration. In one case, the resistance was caused by the presence of condylomata on the perineum . . . The length of the incision never exceeded 1.5 cm. The cuts seemed only to involve the mucous membrane, but I had not opportunity to verify this by postmortem examination. The patients complained of no suffering, in fact were often unconscious of the operation, the incisions being made during a pain. The operation was attended by no hemorrhage. With the exception of a few cases of diphtheritic deposit upon the incised surfaces, the incisions did not complicate the lying-in. The wounds showed no erysipelatous appearance. They healed readily, and when opportunity was had to examine the patients, some months after delivery, the small cicatrices were scarcely recognizable.
Source: The American Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children, Volume 11, 1879
Writings by Anna Elizabeth Broomall
1879 “The Operation of Episiotomy as a Prevention of Perineal Rupture During Labor.” The American Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children, Vol. Xl
1884 “Ovarian Cyst, Complicating Pregnancy.” The Journal of Obstetrics, Vol XVII.
1892 “Symphysiotomy: Three Cases with One Death from Sepsis.” The American Journal of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children, Vol. lXl.
1893 “Gymnastics.” New York Journal of Genecology and Obstetrics. Vol. lll.
Learn More about Anna Elizabeth Broomall
Dr. Anna Elizabeth Broomall. Drexel Legacy Center. Changing the Face of Medicine.
Anna Broomall Made Meaningful Contributions to Medicine and Delaware County by Kathleen Hornberger
Note: Artifacts from Anna Broomall’s life can be found at the Delaware County Historical Society where Broomall worked as a librarian and archivist in her later years, and to which she donated her letters, scrapbooks, and photographs.
“Given her goals and the obstacles she faced, it should be no surprise that Broomall was described as a tough teacher, even “alarming,” in her drive to instill in students a sense of the obstetrician’s responsibility to patients.”
National Institutes of Health