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

It's incredible how incels manage to accuse women of being "useless" while simultaneously throwing a pity party for themselves because they are expected to work and take care of basic household responsibilities - something women have been doing without complaint for hundreds of years.


Also, even according to contemporary sources, more than a third of Puritan brides were pregnant on their wedding day. Keep crying, incels, you are mourning a past that never existed.

There's a wonderful book A Midwife's Tale that was pulled from a late 18th century diary of a midwife that might answer some of those questions for you. As for how the average woman found out about these things, it was often much simpler than you would think. Things like childbirth and all that went with it were family affairs. In the diary mentioned she talks about all the women that were in the room during childbirth, the family and community pitched in. Or how many young girls would go to other households to help care for infants during the period just after birth when the mother often couldn't manage to get out of bed, let alone take care of a house. Not just because the other house needed assistance, but to teach the girls how to take care of children and how the process of birth worked, particularly if there weren't young ones at home.

Privacy is a very modern convenience. Sex occurring today in private bedrooms with thick walls and birth occurring in a sterile hospital surrounded by doctors. Some families lived in single rooms. All life began and ended in the bed they slept in every night. And the whole family was in that room for it. The rest, inevitably was up to her mother or sisters to explain.

The book Albion's seed. Spending time at Plimoth Plantation (relatives landed there). The Boston Tea Party Museum in Boston (relative participated). Spending time at Sturbridge Village. Reading Midwife's tale. (My something great grandfather founded Eastport,
Maine with 16 other families). Good wives. (Reminds me of how lucky I am in many ways!)
One side of the family is all Governors and fancy folk-while there is lots of info about them I am not to interested. I am REALLY into how the regular people lived and try to learn about that.

While it's not my relatives, I loved the NYC tenement museum.

This is an excellent book on the subject, and was even made into an episode of American Experience on PBS. I highly recommend it!