Midwifery was an important profession in Maine. Doctors were scarce but families large.
It may have been Dr. Timothy Carter, the first permanent physician in Bethel, who encouraged Patty to practice midwifery.
Her skill in delivering babies would become critical to the well-being of fellow members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which she joined in 1834. As a Mormon, Patty received stronger confirmation of her decision to follow an obstetrical career.
Patty is credited for escorting 3,997 babies into the world. Patty recorded hundreds of deliveries, identifying one or both parents, the sex of the child, and the date and time of birth.
Patty stayed busy and productive while she moved among the sick and treated them; she helped to lay out the dead; she officiated in her calling as a midwife. On one occasion she froze her hands and toes as she went through severe weather to attend to a sick woman. In August of 1842 she attended the birth of a stillborn baby, her first such event, she indicated, "in thirty years of midwifery."
Since life often revolves around births and illness, Patty was a central figure in an extremely high percentage of the growing number of households in the community of Salt Lake City and later Bountiful, as she had been in Nauvoo, in Winter Quarters, and in the wagons of the pioneer parties of 1847. Obviously she was respected enough to be trusted in emergencies.
Because her capable hands dealt daily with life and death as midwife and medical provider for the community, she lived with a serious sense of urgency and preparation. Her contributions to the well-being of her contemporaries cannot be overemphasized.
Aristotle workbooks that Patty used while she was a midwife
Patty's Midwife Records
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