TIL: #metoo, circa 1790s

[timelets]

Over 30 percent of children in the postcolonial Northeast were born out of wedlock. An unmarried woman who became pregnant sued the alleged father for financial support. Marriage might follow, but the community’s concern focused on the child’s financial well-being.
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Ballard chronicles her bachelor son being accused of paternity. As a midwife, Ballard represented the community and questioned women at the height of labor to identify the child’s father. The society believed that a woman could not lie at that precise moment, and childbirth statements were legally binding.
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Ballard lost five mothers out of 998 career deliveries. In comparison, London hospitals at the time reported the deaths of between 30 and 200 women per every 1000 deliveries. Ballard also recorded fewer stillbirths and neonatal deaths than her male counterparts. Some historians believe that the trend away from traditionally trained midwives and toward male physicians, considered to be more scientifically educated, negatively impacted women’s health until the mid-20th century.

--- R. Welch & P.A. Lamphier, Technical Innovation in American History. 2019. Vol 1, p 85.