Childbearing in American Society, 1650-1850 (The American social experience series)

Childbearing in American Society: 1650-1850 (The American Social Experience Series Volume 2)
viii, 143 pp. 8vo. From the jacket: 'This incisive history traces the dramatic changes in the experience of motherhood between the colonial period and the threshold of the Industrial Revolution. The author contends that childbirth, once a frequent event in women's lives and managed by midwives helped by female relatives and friends, later became a much more isolated experience as women had fewer children and male doctors increasingly took over the process. With fewer children, the work of raising them assumed greater importance, and motherhood became a sacred calling... By analyzing the complex relationships between women's education, family role, and other important factors, Scholten illuminates much broader changes in women's position in American society as a whole.' Bibliographic notes and index follow text.Keywords: MEDICAL MEDICINE CHILDBEARING CHILD BEARING AMERICA AMERICAN SOCIETY SOCIOLOGY