The only surviving example of the mannequin created by Madame Angelique du Coudray le Boursier in 1778 to teach how to deliver babies is kept at the Flaubert Museum of the History of Medicine in Rouen. It is made up of several parts: the inside of a woman's body, a doll the size of a newborn, various accessories showing female anatomy, a seven-month fetus, and a set of twins. It is a handmade construction, made of pink canvas and leather, padded with cotton, resting on an iron frame in a gynecological position. The upper part opens so the doll can be placed inside the mother's belly, where a system of strings and cords, simulating the lengthening of the birth canal, the opening of the vagina and the dilation of the perineum, makes it possible to demonstrate the dynamics of childbirth.

The creator of this «machine», used for demonstration purposes, was a midwife born in 1712 in Clermont-Ferrand into a family of doctors, who trained in Paris. Since women were not allowed to specialize in obstetrics at the time, du Coudray was a pioneer in defending their rights; to prevent them from causing harm to patients, she waged a battle that ended with their acceptance by the medical community. In 1759 she obtained authorization from King Louis XV to teach midwifery in rural areas as well. This led her, for almost 25 years (from 1759 to 1783), to travel throughout France, where she held state-funded training courses attended by surgeons (who went on to pass her teachings forward) and by more than 5,000 women, some with little formal education, who practiced on the mannequin (which she had patented, and which made her rich) to learn how to assist women in labor.

She is also credited with a book, «A Compendium on the Art of Childbirth», which contains her lessons. Although it was largely overlooked when it was published, it became a reference work for midwives during the latter half of the eighteenth century: 38 chapters on the female reproductive organs, obstetrics, complications during childbirth, and prenatal care.

The death of Madame du Coudray, which took place in 1794 in Bordeaux, remains shrouded in mystery: according to various sources, it was not due to old age, but she was in fact killed, having been commissioned by the king.

Thanks to Angelique du Coudray's teachings, infant mortality, which was very high in France at the time, dropped sharply.