After working in hospital labor & delivery units for many years, I joined a home birth practice. I was a birth nurse that traveled to women’s homes and assessed their labor. If the woman was in active labor, I notified the doctor or midwife. The doctor or midwife attended the birth, and I provided supportive care. I was able to see the progress of labor in a quiet setting without the interventions common in the hospital. It was a great learning experience.
Before childbirth moved to the hospital, before doctors took over management of childbirth, midwives attended women. In the late 1700s Martha Ballard delivered 816 babies between the years 1785 and 1812. We know this because Martha kept a diary.
Martha’s diary is a record of the homes she visited to treat illness and attend childbirth. Throughout the diary Martha mentions her faith in God as she ministered to her community. Through her written words, the reader gets a glimpse into her life.
Lauren Thatcher Ulrich researched the diary, the setting of Martha Ballard’s home and the time period. She wrote a book that presented sections of the diary, followed by explanatory essays. The book, A Midwife’s Tale, won a Pulitzer Prize.
Ulrich’s book inspired another writer. Ariel Lawhon has written The Frozen River. Martha Ballard is the main character and the setting is a village along the Kennebec River in Maine. Martha did indeed live in Hallowell along the Kennebec River. The characters in the story are historical people.
The book is a novel, not a biography. In the author notes, Lawhon states that while her novel is a plausible story, the events and details are not all accurate. It is how the author imagined it might have been. The story portrays the culture and sexual attitudes typical of the time.
Like our current times, the story includes the friendship of women and a good marriage. I enjoyed the description of home life and the colorful description of the setting.
The story also includes crime and abusive relationships. There are tragic events.
Lawhon does a good job of showing the midwifes perspective on childbirth, different and in conflict with the medical perspective held by newly trained doctors.
The art at the top of this post is a painting by Loren Entz.
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That painting is beautiful! Would you recommend this book for a book club? (visiting from Grace&Truth link-up )
There is more of Martha Ballard’s faith in her diary. In the novel her marriage and home life are pleasant–even with hard work. I found the episode of rape that takes place in the novel to be difficult to read. The portrayal of the court system is interesting.
Carol, I thought of the Hebrew midwives as I read you post. Both books sound fascinating.