Alyce was no one but "Dung Beetle" to the world, a homeless young girl in medieval England. Then, a midwife named Jane Sharp found her sleeping in the cold and called the young girl to be her apprentice. Soon, Alyce learned more about the life of a midwife, in time able to deliver a baby by herself. But when Alyce fails at her second delivery attempt, she runs away, trying to find a place in this world, only to discover that the only place she belongs is by the midwife's side.
The medieval time period in the book is obvious throughout. Alyce was a mere preteen and the adults that lived in the community around her treated her as if she was an adult. In those days that was very common. For instance, children would have to find jobs just as Alyce did to support themselves. If they didn't and they were without a place to stay, the children would be thrown on to the streets. If this were to happen, one would have to beg for food and lay on the cold ground or waste piles to sleep. It was not a healthy life to live.
Medical treatment was not sanitary at that time. For example, after a newborns" umbilical cord had been cut (using string and a carving knife from the kitchen) if certain herbal oils weren"t readily available spit was used as an alternative. It was implied in the book that when Alyce delivered a child she didn't have clean hands. In contrast to that, in recent times most doctors don't even use their bare hands to deliver a baby. Also, instead of advanced painkillers for delivering a baby, herbs, witchcraft and prayers were used as an aid to the mothers giving birth. .
Most of any medieval midwife's knowledge of delivering a child centered upon herbs. When a midwife would pick herbs for delivering a child first she would pick them and then prepare them using ancient rituals. The ritual depended upon where the herbs were picked, what they looked and tasted like, and what the ruling planets for that plant were.