History of American Midwifery, 17th Century to the Civil War

FAIN: FT-13494-77

Jane B. Donegan
Onondaga Community College (Syracuse, NY 13215-4580)

To work on a book which will investigate the practice of midwifery among upper and middle class women in Philadelphia, Boston, and New York from 1760-1860. The study will trace both the transition of obstetrics from an art practiced by untrained mid-wives to that of a legitimate branch of medicine controlled by male physicians and the reaction against this male dominance which fed into the larger and ultimately more successful movement aimed at finding a place in medicine for American women.