A Midwife’s Tale by Laura Thatcher Ulrich
A Midwife’s Tale by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Paperback, 444 pages
Published June 4th 1991 by Random House, Inc. (first published 1990)
ISBN-13: 9780679733768)
This Book Is For You If:
- You are a lover of history.
- You are a reader of books of this specific time period.
- You are interested in the origins of modern medicine.
- You are someone who is interested in women studies in general.
In A Midwife’s Tale, Laura Thatcher Ulrich delves into Martha Ballard’s diary circa 1785-1812. In her adept way, she pulls out information that wouldn’t be noticeable to the untrained eye. With simple sentences (or rather notes) and incorrect spelling (which compared to her husband’s spelling gave us insight into Martha’s formal education – an interesting tidbit considering her medical education through her years of experience) Martha simply mentions her calendar for the day, including what she was paid for services and which babies were born. Through that, Ulrich translates what life was like in the late 18th and early 19th century in Maine. She is able to help us see more clearly what Martha is saying between the lines of her writing and we learn detailed information about what it was like to be a woman in that time and place. Being a woman in that time period in Maine was surprisingly less Victorian than one might have originally assumed. I (along with the read-a-longers) discovered that much remains the same (or, at least, more than we thought) – if even dealt with differently. For example, babies are still born out of wedlock, the mothers were not made to ear a scarlet A on their clothes, and most even went on to marry other men. The difference was, it was much easier to get support from the baby’s biological father through judicial methods (even if the ways of proving fatherhood were much less sophisticated).
Along with daily life, we see a cultural change throughout this diary. We watch as the holistic, age-old traditions of the midwives made way for medical doctors and the medical profession (as we know it today) as a whole. We saw male doctors stumble and wreak havoc while midwives adeptly tended to their patients with keen ability. The instruction that was given to doctors in those days was very different than that that was given to midwives. Midwives practiced on people (after years of attending more experienced midwives in their duties), while doctors practiced in classrooms — with books. Often their first procedures on humans were the first time they were hired by a patient… and at times a midwife had to be called in to help or fix a problem.
Overall, an incredibly informative book; much more interesting than one might think. That said, it is for a certain type of reading palate — and can be dry if you are not interested in the subject. However, for those that love history, Ulrich does a wonderful job bringing it to life.
I loved, loved, loved this book. Did the end make you teary, when Ulrich wondered if the roadside plants of the area could have been seed blown year after year from Martha’s garden? Oh, how poignant!
I thought it was especially fantastic to read so close to John Adams. Not exactly the same period, but a very interesting contrast in both histories and historians! Both Pulitzer prize winners (and both deserved imo!).
There was a lot more murder and mayhem than I thought I was going to be reading about! I was expecting death, I was expecting difficult living conditions, but not mass murder, and not even the rape in the way it happened.
I really enjoyed the language in the book, too. It might sound funny because most modern readers would perceive Martha as uneducated, but the way she put spellings and phrases together was so creative and I knew exactly what she was getting at (and what she was trying to NOT get at!). Wonderful.
It does make me want to go to that area and see where Martha lived — now that I feel like I know her! And she was in the exact time period as Adams! Isn’t that amazing… I couldn’t stop thinking about that. Her life was so different from his, yet so important in shaping our culture in a very different way.
I agree that her spellings were charming, and that one can get used to reading them; however, I think it was important that Ulrich not only showed us her spellings, but also showed us Ephraim’s so we could see the difference in formal education. From a historical aspect this shows us that even though it seemed like women had more rights in that time than we might have thought — it was still not thought important to formally educate them in mass (I’m sure wealthy families formally educated their girls to some extent). And from a medical aspect, it shows that even the male doctors, who were coming from Harvard, weren’t holding a candle to a woman who possibly didn’t even go to grade school. The difference in the type of education that they had (life and the experience of passed down traditions compared to formal and bookish) had exactly the opposite effect that most people today would think it would have… midwives being more successful at healing people than the doctors were (i.e. better educated in the ways of the actual trade without the “formal” education). I thought that point of Ulrich’s was fascinating.
Yes – look at the difference in Martha’s education vs. Abigail Adams! Abigail was quoting Shakespeare etc from memory constantly.
I also thought the medical education vs. experience was fascinating too. I sometimes think that it would be good to incorporate even more of the apprentice system of old into our educational system, in all disciplines!
I totally agree. It happens with teaching (you have to have a certain amount of student teaching hours under a master teacher) and I can’t even begin to imagine stepping into a classroom of one’s own without it. It’s also a great way to get the experience one needs to put on a resume!
This sounds fascinating to me. I love this sort of historical artifact – cultural record type writing.
This sounds super interesting. I have read so many books where they talk about midwives and I always wonder how babies were born back before we had things like antibiotics, epidurals and vacuum pumps. I might have to check this out! Does it get really detailed about the deliveries, etc?
No it’s not too detailed about anything crazy gross. In fact “vacuum pump” was grosser than anything mentioned in the book (in my opinion), haha!
LOL!!!!!!! Excellent!
Except for puking worms! LOL!
Have you seen the PBS documentary based on Martha’s diary? One of my history profs in college showed it in her undergrad survey classes every term. I haven’t read this book yet (it is on my wishlist) but I really enjoyed the documentary on it.