I just found one - "Diploma d'Accoucheuse". I haven't a clue what this means but it sounds very grand for a 54 year old widow who was a Monthly Nurse in the previous census!
Jill
My understanding is that an Accoucheuse would normally be a female Obstetrician or (particularly these days) a qualified Midwife - and even more generally, any female person who assisted at the birth of a child. We had (may still have - it's on mine but that was a while back
) the rather grand word Accoucheur on birth certificates in Victoria Australia. The column for Witnesses has three possibilities - (i) Accoucheur - this was used only by qualified doctors, and the assumption obviously was that these would be male, (ii) Nurse by whom certified, and (iii) Name of occupier or other witnesses. Mine has a Doctor under (i), a Sister under (ii), and no entry under (iii). But in earlier times I have certificates where there was only one name and it was recorded under (iii) - often Grandma who was both occupier and amateur midwife - or none at all.
So I suppose that the Diploma was a nursing (Midwife's) qualification - I wonder where your widow obtained it! Pity you don't have a copy. A Monthly Nurse, of course, one who attended a mother for the month after the birth.
JAP
