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

Arminianism is a Protestant movement that began in the 17th century, led by Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius. The core beliefs of Arminianism include the idea that people who hear the Gospel, or the story of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, have the option to believe and accept God’s offer of grace and salvation or to reject it. Adherents to Arminianism also believe that no one is excluded from God’s grace unless they outright reject it, which directly goes against Calvin’s idea of predestination. The goal of Arminianism was to temper the beliefs of Calvinism, especially as it relates to predestination, but such beliefs were perceived as a form of religious dissent within small, close-knit New England communities, many of which had a single church. This liberalizing of Protestant beliefs arises a few times within the text, as Henry Sewall leveled accusations of Arminianism against Reverend Isaac Foster and the same accusations against Captain Purrington. Arminianism later gave rise to the Baptist and Methodist traditions, which would rise in popularity in the 19th century.

An anachronism is an error in chronology or something that appears outside of its context in history. Ulrich refers to anachronism when discussing the statistics regarding Martha’s maternal-fetal mortality rate. Statistics was not a mathematical science that Martha would have been familiar with. While she kept track of how many babies were born, who lived and who died, and how many people recovered “well” or “poorly,” she did not calculate percentages, or as Ulrich argues, even view her work as something that required percentages. Midwifery was holistic in her view, not requiring numerical calculation unless it was for the purpose of a census.

Calvinism is a Protestant movement that began in the 16th century by Swiss reformer John Calvin. Calvin agreed with Lutheranism founder Martin Luther about “sola scriptura,” or the idea the only source of authority for the Christian faith comes from the Bible. Calvin also agreed with justification by faith, which means that faith in God is the only condition required for salvation. Where Calvin disagreed with Luther was on how salvation was obtained. Calvin’s theology included the idea of predestination, which means that God has already chosen his “elect” whom he will save. There is a clear line between the elect and those not chosen for salvation. Calvinists in New England—particularly men with power in their communities, such as Henry Sewall—thus felt threatened by the rise of the Universalist tradition, which decreed that all Christians achieve salvation.

The World Health Organization defines midwifery as “skilled, knowledgeable and compassionate care for childbearing women, newborn infants and families across the continuum from prepregnancy, pregnancy, birth, postpartum and the early weeks of life” (“Midwifery Education and Care.” World Health Organization). Midwifery comes from the Old/Middle English for “mid,” which means “with,” and “wif,” which means “woman,” translating to literally “with woman.” The midwife’s role from the genesis of the term was to be with a woman in labor and to offer care for them. Midwives are mentioned in the Book of Genesis in the Bible, dating to the 5th-6th century BCE, demonstrating how ancient the practice of midwifery is. Martha Ballard was one midwife within an ancient tradition of offering compassionate care to women during an intimate, vulnerable, and sometimes dangerous moment in their lives.