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Care for illness, birth, and death in early colonial times is largely home-based.

Date: 1610s

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Settler-colonists live in isolated communities and are reliant on home remedies, plant medicine, and, sometimes, relationships with Native healers. Birth and death among early European colonists in the Americas are handled at home and among kin. Childbirth is overseen by midwives, when available, or by women in the family. Family members care for the dying and dead. Midwifery and birth care work practices from Black and Indigenous families are often stolen and appropriated by white settler-colonist families.