A Midwife's Tale Analysis

Martha Ballard was a woman who was really just a normal woman in eighteenth century New England. She was ordinary and extraordinary at the same time. In A Midwife’s Tale, a book by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Martha served Hallowell, Maine as a midwife. She kept a diary of her life and exploits. This diary was used as a window into the world of Martha Ballard and her experiences in life. Ulrich used the diary as an interpretive tool and uses many part of the diary in her own book. Ulrich used her own thoughtful interpretation of the diary to provide proof of her argument and created a narrative that engages readers in a way that causes them to think more critically about the past versus the present day. There were ten very important points …show more content…
Martha Ballard did ordinary things that physicians routinely did during that time. She healed people, tended them on their deathbeds, delivered babies, and treated all other sorts of aches, pains, and maladies. The most unbelievable thing about this was that she did it during a time when women did not do these things on their own, because they were not qualified as women to undertake such endeavors. However, she proved men wrong and was very good at what she did. Martha Ballard used many of the same treatments, tools, and remedies of her male counterparts. This was, as would be noted by those women who provided the same services, a midwife’s role and duty. However, there was a distinction here that should not be underplayed, these women were not physicians and were at times looked down upon and were not paid as well even though they did the same work, if not more, than many male physicians of the day. Ulrich does not fail to remind the reader that Martha was indeed a woman who could do the same job as a male physician and she could do it as well, if not better than a male physician. Ulrich’s interpretation on Martha Ballard’s life as a midwife supported her thesis about gender stereotypes and how Martha not only bent, but broke them by being a woman who did the work of a physician and provided social medicine to the citizens of Hallowell despite not being a