A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812

1796 was a difficult year for the Ballards. Both Ephraim and Martha experienced professional hardships in 1795; Ephraim’s land surveying was hard, physically taxing work at his age of 70 years, and as Martha’s midwifery practice continued to grow, she spent over 60 nights away from home tending to laboring mothers. Martha was concerned with her son Jonathan’s behavior, a concern that grew over the coming months. Martha’s daughters encountered a number of health conditions: Dolly got measles, Lucy experienced the death of a child soon after birth, and Hannah became severely ill for six weeks after the birth of her second child. In November, when Ephraim returned home early, he informed Martha that he had been robbed at gunpoint while surveying. This was the same day Martha celebrated her 600th birth attended in the 20 years that they had lived in Maine. Martha’s fatigue is apparent in these entries, quoting an old song saying “a woman’s work is never done” (243). Despite her bustling midwifery business, she was still responsible for the domestic economy of the home, which as she aged, grew even more cumbersome, especially with all her daughters leaving the house and the revolving door of temporary helpers that required training and oversight.