December 1793 Summary

In 1793, Martha delivered 53 babies from all walks of life, including the wealthy, middle class, poor, and free blacks. One birth per week was not so bad, but there were many other factors involved in Martha being a midwife, such as weather, false labor, and other things. During this year Martha would run two or three days straight, without a break, and then would have days and weeks without delivering any babies.

Martha noted every birth she attended with meticulous details. Martha listed the time called, the time of the birth, gender of the baby(ies), if the delivery had problems, how her patients were doing when she left them in the care of the after nurse, and payment. Martha did not mention medical details in most of her entries. Martha left out other details about the births, not from embarrassment, but because during...