‘A Midwife’s Tale: The life of Martha Ballard’ is among the best literary works of Laura Thatcher Ulrich. It is a tale of the life of Martha Ballard, a midwife, during the late 1700s. While the book quotes directly from Martha’s journal, the author includes her narration throughout the text. The first entry in the diary happens in August 1987 when Martha lived in Hallowell, Maine. Despite the fact that she was a consistent writer, most of Ballard’s journal entries cover at most five lines. The journal entries appear each day until the demise of Martha Ballard at the age of 77 in the year 1812. One of her most dominant journal entries include her assisting as a midwife in about 814 deliveries between the years 1785 to 1812 when she died. It is noteworthy that none of the women ever died under her care. Other entries included her normal life activities including visitors, whether, grocery lists, and the usual town gossip. In the diary, she also included her occasional financial logs with precise details of her expenditures and earnings. She was much more than just a midwife who responds to house calls and assist in childbirths. She played other critical roles as a mother, record keeper, a keeper, a medical history chronicler, and most importantly, a hero. The fact that she was a midwife also made her a mortician, nurse, pharmacist, and physician. The book, whose contents are directly drawn from her book, ends with a list of local plants and particular mysterious ingredients for medicinal uses. Contextually, the book illustrates the role of women in the society during the post-revolution epoch.
The Roles of women