American Experience: A Midwife's Tale on AllMovie

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name by historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, American Experience: A Midwife's Tale is an investigative unfolding of the life of an 18th century midwife, Martha Ballard, living on the Maine frontier. For 27 years, Ballard kept a diary in which she recorded the weather, daily household tasks, her midwifery duties, her medical practice, and countless incidents, which, through Ulrich's exploration, reveals the turmoil of post-Revolutionary America through a woman's eye. Social change, religious conflict, economic instability, as well as the grim realities of disease, domestic violence, and debtor's prison are all culled from the cryptic entries of Ballard's diary.