14. Executing women for Midwifery
Families settled New England beginning in the 1620s. Large families were the norm. Women were expected to marry in their early 20s and begin having babies immediately. It was not uncommon for one woman to give birth every two years for 25 years! In Puritan New England, wives were to obey their husbands and be “helpmates.” Farm wives were responsible for tending to vegetable and herb gardens, churning milk into butter, fermenting malt into beer, spinning thread and yarn, knitting sweaters and making cloth for clothing, preserving meat from slaughtered livestock, and maintaining a home and caring for her children.
The sphere of womanhood was wrought with challenges. Perhaps the most vexing of these to men was pregnancy and childbirth. In Puritan New England, as with cultures throughout the world, childbirth was the only area that women had any semblance of authority. Childbirth was horrifying and many women died. Only the healthiest of newborns made it beyond their first birthday. For the midwife and her attendants, usually older women who were neighbors, it was imperative to care for the laboring woman and prepare her home for the arrival of a new baby.
Midwives administered herbs to alleviate pain and sought guidance from nature and the supernatural in the hopes of having a good birth. Some female attendants provided prayers and spiritual advice to laboring women. This was in direct defiance of the Puritan church, but it was often overlooked if all turned out well. Life got tricky when mothers died in childbirth. Suddenly a well-respected woman was accused of being a witch for her reliance on herbs which made her “addicted to sorcery.” Puritan magistrates sentenced convicted witches to death by hanging. Women were scrutinized for their actions in ways that men in Puritan New England never could be.