Martha coming from Oxford to Maine gave her a better opportunity to accelerate her process to graduate to a midwife by the many births happening in Hallowell, Maine at the time. She had to deliver a respected number of babies before she could officially become a midwife. Many pregnancies were premarital, but the town seemed to respect them if the father stepped up and took care of the mother and the child. If the father did not want to step up and take responsibility then he would be tried in the Court of Sessions in order for the baby to have some parental support instead of the town helping out to support it. An example is when Jonathan, Martha's son, and Sally Pierce had a child before marriage and he decided to marry her before he was tried in court. At first he did not step up, but Sally tried to sue him for child support after she found out that she was pregnant with his child. Martha was also considered a physician by she could prescribe and give medicines to the sick. She was considered a full time doctor like many of the male physicians, but could only do certain things. Since of their gender, they had the privilege to attend more formal schools than women so they had the necessary training to perform more things that an ordinary midwife could not do. Male doctors have access to many tools that Martha could not get a hold to so they had an upper hand on being able to help out the sick. Some in the town could not afford the fees of a physician so many would call upon Martha to receive one of her remedies "In the early 1800s, when Martha Ballard was charging under $2 for a delivery, Page was collecting $6" (Ulrich 179). .
Martha also had a family who she raised back at her home. Over the course of six years, she give birth to nine kids but one six survived out of the nine. Her daughters and neighbors would assist her in many of the daily tasks of women in the town.
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However, when one examines other sources, such as "A Midwife's Tale", it seems as if Cott is missing an important part of the puzzle regarding gender history and women's issues. ... The film "A Midwife's Tale" also addresses the gender issues of the period from 1790 to 1840. This film is shot documentary style and is based on the diary of a midwife living in the 1780's. This movie is an adaptation of the book A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812, by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. ... "A Midwife's Tale" is an appropriate answer t...
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In the novel, "Song of Solomon," Tony Morrison tells a story full of strange occurrences and unbelievable feats. The way in which she writes allows space for the reader to interpret the paranormal in the story as truth or legend. Many things are left as questions and unanswered thoughts. However, I ...
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(P. 10)2 In the third part of "Shaman", in describing her mother's experience as a midwife, she adopts words such as "monsters, spewings, child born without anus". ... It is a pure world of fairy tales and it is a dreamy land of oriental poets. ...
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