"Uncertain blessings": pregnancy, birth, and early childcare in eighteenth-century America

Abstract

The almost continuous cycle of pregnancy, birth, and childcare dictated the rhythms of eighteenth-century American women's lives. The birthing and care of children represented one of women's main contributions to the household. It was hard work and its outcome was always uncertain. Historians have written relatively little about American childbirth in the eighteenth century; they have written even less on eighteenth-century childcare. This paper, which incorporates evidence from both objects and documentary sources, begins to fill in the gap.