Ben Franklin's world is a production of the

O'Mohandro Institute. Hello and welcome to episode 237 of Ben Franklin's world.

The podcast dedicated to helping you,

learn more about how the people and events of our early American past have shaped the present day world we live in.

And I'm your host, Liz Kovart.

Thanks in large part to the work of a West Virginia woman named Anna Jarvis,

the second Sunday in May, Mother's Day, became a national holiday in the

United States on May 9, 1914. Now, the purpose of this holiday is so Americans can

officially honor all the work that mothers do to raise children.

But what precisely is the work that mothers do to raise children?

Has the nature of mothers, motherhood, and the work they do changed over time?

Nora Doyle, an assistant professor of history at Salem College in North Carolina,

has combed through the historical record to find answers to these questions.

Specifically, she sought to better understand the lived and imagined

experiences of mothers and motherhood between the 1750s and 1850s. Now, using details from

her book, maternal bodies, redefining motherhood in early America, Nora reveals.

How early Americans thought about mothers and motherhood between the 1750s and 1850s.

How early American women experienced pregnancy in her? and 1850s and 1850s.

How early American women experienced pregnancy and childbirth.

And the legacies and impact early American views of pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood have

had on our own present-day views of pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood.

But first, I do want to wish all mothers a very happy mother's day, especially my own mother.

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