Maternity, Midwifery, and Ministers: The Puritan Origins of American Obstetrics

This article considers the ways in which Puritan ministers of the seventeenth century engaged in modes of “obstetric thinking” that predated and prefigured the obstetric revolution that would come to pass in subsequent centuries. Before the doors of the birthing room were opened to the physician, and before the appearance of the tools we commonly associate with his arrival (i.e., forceps), Puritan ministers (and other male authorities) engaged in the rhetorical management of the birth process. The case of Anne Hutchinson, midwife, mother, and convicted heretic, is particularly telling on this point, as are the circumstances and documents surrounding the publication of Anne Bradstreet’s “The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America” (1650). In considering the lives and work of these two women, this essay explores both the ways in which childbirth practices were influenced by local authorities, as well as the ways in which women challenged such influence.