Origin and education
Charlotte was the first child of Georg Heiland and his wife Regina. After Georg Heiland’s death, Regina Josepha Heiland married (Johann Theodor) Damian von Siebold (1769-1828), the city doctor and medical officer of Darmstadt from Göttingen, known as the “Starstich” surgeon, and son of Carl Caspar von Siebold.
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Damian of Siebold adopted Charlotte and her sister Therese, with both receiving his surname. To improve the family income, Josepha von Siebold worked in her husband’s practice. Later, she even studied medicine and received the 'Ehrendoktorwürde der Entbindungskunst, an honourary doctorate of childbirth, in 1815.
Charlotte was interested in medicine and read her father’s books on Anatomy and physiology. She later received theoretical instruction from her father and practical training from her mother, but the focus was on obstetrics. In 1811 Charlotte went to Göttingen to attend private lectures by Osiander and Langenbeck.[3]
In 1814, Charlotte passed the exam for obstetrics before the “Grand Duchy of Hessen Grand-Ducal Medicinal-Collegium” in Darmstadt and was allowed to practise as an obstetrician from then on. On 26 March 1817, she became a „Doktorin der Geburtshilfe“, a ‘doctor of obstetrics’ with the thesis work titled ‘Using pregnancy outside the cervical and abdominal pregnancies in particular’.
Work
Charlotte von Siebold moved back to Darmstadt and worked there in her parents’ maternity hospital. She taught midwives and took care of the poor as well as raised money for the ‘Buergerhospital’ of Darmstadtl.
In 1829, she married the military doctor August Heidenreich (1801-1880) who was 14 years her junior and who later became Generalstabsarzt, the chief medical doctor of the armed forces. In 1845, she set up an obstetric facility for the poor in Darmstadt.
Charlotte von Siebold enjoyed an excellent reputation as a childbirth assistant and was called several times to give births to multiple royal courts. She helped both Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duchess of Kent, the mother of the later Queen Victoria, and Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg, the mother of the later husband of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, during the births of their respective children. [4]