ABSTRACT
This chapter examines midwifery in Wisconsin. Wisconsin was fairly typical in its political stance toward midwives. A study of childbearing conditions by the Children's Bureau in Marathon County, Wisconsin, portrayed the extreme isolation farm women faced in many rural areas. Though many European school-educated midwives were among the large numbers of immigrants flooding Milwaukee and the rest of the state in the late nineteenth century, the most compelling explanation for die decline in apprentice training for midwives in Wisconsin lies with the establishment of two schools for midwives in Milwaukee. In Wisconsin, at least, midwifery was most definitely practiced by married women. While the Wisconsin data provided no clear-cut economic rationale for midwifery practice, they demonstrated strongly the relationship between midwives' immigrant status and their chosen occupation. In an era when Americans increasingly insisted on professionals in many aspects of their lives, the evidence on Wisconsin's midwives shows that midwifery remained a traditional female occupation.
