Difference between revisions of "Week 7 Questions/Comments-327 11"
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Like Stef, I was also intrigued by how Martha Ballard did more than help women give birth. It appears that she was very much relied on for her advice and was a well known and respected midwife which is portrayed by her constantly going to houses in need of aid. However, I disagree with the notion that she had a terrible life. Not once does she personally complain about her work and her constantly going out to help others in itself reflects the value she put on her work. If she truly began to get worn down, I am sure she would have been fine in giving herself a vacation. --Heather T. | Like Stef, I was also intrigued by how Martha Ballard did more than help women give birth. It appears that she was very much relied on for her advice and was a well known and respected midwife which is portrayed by her constantly going to houses in need of aid. However, I disagree with the notion that she had a terrible life. Not once does she personally complain about her work and her constantly going out to help others in itself reflects the value she put on her work. If she truly began to get worn down, I am sure she would have been fine in giving herself a vacation. --Heather T. | ||
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| + | On the 19th she mentioned that she attended a lecture but didn’t say what it was about. Was it a medical lecture, how modern doctors are always traveling around to go to lectures? On the 21st she said she went to a meeting on Sunday, I’m assuming that means a church service? On September 6th she mentioned going to the town (how far I wonder is that?) meeting to hire Mr. Noble. “Voted to hire him till March.” Does this mean that she voted herself? On Sunday the 11th, she mentions that she had to inform a woman that her child had deceased. I’m sure she had gotten very used to this and desensitized to death, but I wish she could have given a hint to her feelings. She seems very passive in that entry mentioning telling the mother and the funeral is the following day. I was surprised that she mentioned things like people stubbing their foots or a bruised toe. I suppose maybe these could have been more serious during that time, but to me a bruised to seems to be such a small problem I’d be embarrassed to even ask for the doctor. On the 13th what did she mean by “Watched at the Fort this night”? -- Emma C. | ||
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| + | I didn’t get the feeling from her journal that she hated her life. I think, in fact, that she greatly valued her profession and herself for that matter. She worked very hard and lost sleep and witnessed death, but what she did was important to people, she was making a difference and I think she loved it. From her writing, she seems very desensitized but I don’t think that means she hated her life, I think she is desensitized as a result of her profession. I’ve met many surgeons and doctors that have seen too much and can not allow horrible things to effect their day to day activities, or sanity… -- Emma C. | ||
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| + | I'm going to weigh in on the side of everyone who doesn't think that she was particularly unhappy with her life. She was busy, certainly, but I didn't detect moroseness in her entries at all, just brevity. There are not many details, but I don't think that's a sign of depression. I think if she had not been happy doing what she was doing, she wouldn't have done it- it was not as though women were expected to work outside the home, after all, and it was not as though she was the only person available to help sick or injured neighbors. She mentions having "competition" and that there are doctors and other midwives present. Despite the loss fo 42 nights of sleep, I got the feeling this was a choice she made and was content with. --Rebecca W. | ||
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| + | When I was reading her diary, all I was thinking is that she was horribly over worked. The last line of the diary that was in our textbook is that she had lost 42 nights sleep this year….something that most women could not say. She ran a household, took care of a family and kept a whole town healthy. With someone that most likely only had a simple education, why was she given the job that took years of training? –Kayle P. | ||
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| + | There were three things in this diary that I found particularly interesting. The first is very trivial, but I noticed that she recorded Thanksgiving Day on December 15th. Did the date of Thanksgiving somehow change? The second thing was that Ballard did much more than be a midwife by healing people with all sorts of sicknesses. The third thing is the most intriguing, and that is that on September 6th, she attended and voted in a town meeting. This seems to me to be a sort of political action. Was voting like that much more acceptable than electoral voting? ---Mary Beth M. | ||
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| + | I actually look up to Ballard. She is a very strong woman. She raised 6 children, was a wife, became a midwife at the age of 42, practiced other types of medicine, produced clothing, quilted and did other odd jobs. She seemed to be very strong willed. I did have sympathy for her because she was often ill due to her line of work and because she was at home a lot while her husband was out working or doing other things. She was very short with her words, but I couldn't tell if this was due to bitterness, an uninteresting day, or if she lacked the type of education it took to write very well. Page 63 states that the passages were taken from an edited version that shortened her entries, but I wrote my first paper on her diary and that version was the same way, so I'm assuming all entries were already pretty short(?). --Ashley V. | ||
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| + | I would agree with Ashley and with many of the other posts that argue that she enjoyed her life. Yes, it was stressful, but at the same time, she not only was a midwife who helped the mothers and children at the time of birth. But, after birth, it shows she cared for the kids after they were born. She had love towards them and asked and cared for them. Also, her life can be compared to women of today who are mothers, take care of the household and children, and still have time to take care of the husband as well; would we be questioning the lives of those woman today? I think it's important to realize also how involved she was in the community, she also participated in funerals. In addition to Mary Beth's post, I guess she had more say in town matters and the way things were done than the average woman? --Aqsa Z. | ||
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| + | I am surprised at the notes that she took and that she was as educated as she was. People in her town and even further it seemed, really liked her caretaker abilities. I also found it interesting that she took notes as to what she gave people for remedies and if she charged them. In her diary you also get a feel of her personal life like who is there and what people are doing. I also found it funny that she mentions she was home for her anniversary and how many years they have been married, but she never says if Mr. Ballard was home with her. Her diary was a great glimpse of a normal day for her but she doesn’t really write how she feels (except when she was sick). I enjoyed reading this because you very rarely saw what a woman went through during this time. --Pam P. | ||
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| + | I was struck by Martha Ballards candid frankness in her diary. She relates facts without fluff. I also thought it was interesting that she notes the weather before every entry, it is a reminder that she was living, working and writing day to day. Although it is helpful to see Martha's role as a midwife, I think the value of her diary lies in the great insight it gives us into her social life and the social lives of those around her. Her account demonstrates the relationship that she had with other women and her relationship with her family. It shows what was important in her life as a woman, not just a midwife. This diary can be representative of many woman's lives, women whose diaries are not transcribed. -- Hannah W. | ||
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| + | I found Martha Ballard to be a truly impressive figure. She was a very accomplished wife, mother, and community servant. I didn't really didn't get the impression that Ballard's life was miserable or that she somehow hated it. It seemed to me that she was simply a very busy woman who did an incredible amount of work for her family and her community. The sickness and deaths she was forced to deal with were, as we have discussed in class, part of the culture of the time. Possibly they had a more profound impact on her life because she was so closely involved with a great number of them, but from her diary (particularly the excerpt from our text) it does not appear that she was overly troubled or pained by them. She does not put a great deal of emotion into her diary, it is more a recitation of goings on in her life, making it an interesting insight to the her life and the lives of other women of the time. --Grace C. | ||
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| + | I really enjoyed reading Martha Ballard's diary. I learned that Ballard had land, a big family, and resources to provide for her family. It is also important to note that because she could write daily about her life, she was probably seen as an important figure of the time period because we've learned in class that women who left written documents were usually related to important men of the time period. I really thought it was interesting to read about the hardships Ballard faced (with being sick) while her husband was away, and how she dealt with her sickness. --Catherine Kennedy | ||
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| + | I'm fascinated by the debate going on here regarding whether Ballard was unhappy or not. I'd have to agree that the diary itself only presents a very pragmatic view of her life. Even when reading more deeply, it is difficult to determine whether Ballard was devoted to her work and simply a deeply pragmatic person, or whether the spareness of her writings could be indicative of unhappiness in her life. I did find it surprising that her pragmatism didn't fracture when she was describing tragedy, as in Mrs. McMaster's stillbirth on September 11. She devotes as much time in her diary to the news of the McMaster family's tragedy ("...and her child was deceased. The funeral tomorrow") as she does to standard, successful birth (as of the September 13 birth "she was delivered [at] six o'clock, afternoon, of a daughter.") It's difficult to imagine, though, that Ballard could have devoted so much of her time and so much of her energy to something that did not bring her joy or at least a sense of accomplishment. I wish she had emoted more in her diary, so we could figure out how she actually felt about her life. -- Nicole | ||
