A MIDWIFES TALE Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

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A MIDWIFES TALELaurel Thatcher Ulrich

• Presented by Jaime Fleming Laurie Upton

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The Diary

• This book is the diary of Martha Ballard, a
  midwife during the late 18th and early 19th
  centuries.
• The entire book was not simply a diary, it was
  the interpretation of her entries by the author.

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Main Points of Discussion

• First, we will discuss social healers what they
  are, who they were, what they did and their
  effects on society.
• Then, we will discuss the changing role of women
  in medicine over the course of Marthas lifetime.

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Social Healers

• Definition A network of healers without any
  formal training that forged bonds between women
  and families, whose professional force was based
  completely on their local reputation.
• Who were social healers? Women who had already
  raised their families that showed deep caring and
  devotion to their work.
• What did the social healers do? Their
  responsibilities ranged from delivering babies to
  dressing the dead and treating a wide variety of
  sickness.

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Social Healers in Society

• They were an invisible strength.
• They signified the lack of technology available.
• It provided women with a place in medicine.

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The role of women in the 18th century

• In Hallowell, Marthas town, there were no female
  doctors.
• Women in medicine were restricted to midwifery
  which required little certification other than
  being very interested in medicine and
  knowledgeable in the healing powers of plants.
• Despite this lack of formal training, the
  midwifes were very popular and were not
  considered subordinate by the towns people.

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The role of women during the 19th century

• With changing technology and the rise of the
  Doctor, midwives were losing business.
• Society no longer viewed midwives as qualified
  medical professionals for fear that it might ruin
  her disposition It is obvious that we cannot
  instruct women as we do men in the science of
  medicine we cannot carry them into the
  dissecting room and the hospital many of our
  more delicate feelings, much of our refined
  sensibility must be subdued, before we can submit
  to the sort of discipline required in the study
  of medicine in females they must be destroyed
  and I venture to say that a female could scare
  pass through the course of education requisite to
  prepare her, as she ought to be prepared, for the
  practice of midwifery, without destroying those
  moral qualities of character, which are essential
  to the office.

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What this tells us about the history of medicine

• The role of women in medicine has changed
  significantly over the past 200 years, while the
  male role has remained generally the same.
• The present medical system was unheard of during
  Puritan times. There were no hospitals or
  ambulances or formal education for doctors.
  Medicine was socially oriented.