If you want find out more about Martha Ballard, a midwife from Maine, who kept a diary recording all of her births--don't waste your reading time with this fictionalized version of her life. Her life and work were amazing enough without having to add fictionalized drama. It detracts from the truly amazing woman and midwife she was. I ended up just reading it as a work of fiction--I will stick to actual bibliographies from now one.
Please read this instead:
A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on her Diary, 1785-1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
It won a Pulitizer Prize and rightly so.
