Comments on "A Midwife's Tale" - The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785 - 1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
"Historians have distinguished three general systems of labor in early America: chattel slavery in the South, indentured servitude in the mid-Atlantic region, and family labor in New England."
Laurel Ulrich describes how before the 19th century most children in America were brought into the world by "midewives", such as Martha Ballard. However, with the developement of more scientific,sometimes apparently called "heroic", medicine, the "aggressiveness of the new doctors"{male} and their poorly justified scorn of the practice of midewifery probably gradually discouraged young women from entering the profession.
When men decided that they wanted something they took over, and women deferred and ultimately yielded; as seems to be usual.
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