When King Henry IV attacked Paris in October 1589, Bourgeois was home alone with her three children, and her husband was out of the country away on duty in the army. She abandoned her rural home and most of their possessions to retreat with her children and mother behind the city walls of Paris for protection. For an income, Bourgeois then took up needlework and sold items she embroidered in addition to pieces of valuable personal items she had managed to save. This was barely enough income to support her family. This would eventually lead her to take up midwifery.
