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Midwifery, Healing Women, Healing Birth
(reprinted by permission
from Eve in Hand, Inogural Edition Jan 2007)  In spite of generations of suppression,
Midwives continue to assist mothers and infants in birth.
When asked to write a piece about midwives for the inaugural issue of
Eve in Hand, the possibilities for which direction it should go were endless.
There are many types of midwives who have different backgrounds and types of
training; however the case is such that midwives, regardless of their training
are so committed to normal birth and so mutable that often we strive to be
whatever our clients need us to be. That aside, the more I thought about it, the
more it became clear that the first piece of information that I should like to
impart to the readers of Eve in Hand is one that speaks of a midwife's mission
to end the long standing trend of lies and violence that have become inherent in
modern childbirth practices.
For generations women have been subjugated
in the birth place by the medical profession, the entire crux of which started
in the middle ages when male surgeons and physicians, influenced heavily by the
early Catholic Church, were taught to believe that women were unclean and needed
to be delivered of themselves during childbirth in order to ensure the her
purity and that of her newborn child. Because women were not allowed in most
cases to be educated in universities, younger midwives were trained by their
elders, apprenticeship fashion. Midwives did not come from the nobility and as a
result they were deemed ignorant and superstitious. Later midwives and healers
were labeled witches and many were executed simply for their belief in normal
birth and their desire to honor the sacred spiritual, emotional and sexual rite
of passage of birth.
Today, midwifery is a struggling profession, not
because of lack of training or professionalism, but because if women begin to
believe in their ability to give birth normally, then the longstanding and very
profitable business industry surrounding childbirth begins a dramatic decline.
So today as yesterday, midwives are negatively singled out for honoring women. I
have to impart to you the basest of truths, a secret long held by generations of
strong and empowered women, but one that needs to be recognized by everyone.
Birth is safe. It is as safe as life gets and it is a very real, sacred
sexual rite of passage. Giving birth is as safe as breathing, eating, or making
love. Just like it is a longstanding rule that you never interfere with an
animal when it is laboring, the same truth applies to the human animal. There
are women who believe this, and every day a woman gives birth to her child in a
calm and nurturing way, celebrating the very essence of womanhood and embracing
her sexual nature.
In my experience in working with birthing women, I
have seen lies and violence in every corner of the birth room. I have seen women
lied to and given half truths regarding the risks of procedures. I have seen
them given drugs or had procedures performed on them without their consent. I
have even seen women threatened with being arrested or having their babies
removed from their care for not submitting to the whims of hospital staff. I had
the experience once of witnessing a woman having her legs forcibly pried open
and held as she pushed her baby into the world. The senseless violence on women
is overwhelming. This is not even addressing the lack of sensitivity when it
comes to violence that is applied daily to our newborn infants and the trauma to
the mother/baby bond as a result.
The roll of the midwife is ultimately
to protect the integrity and the normalcy of birth, to be with woman, not to
deliver her. The midwife's model of care is nurturing, evidence based, and low
in risk and intervention. The medical model of care is not evidence based at
all, but rather liability based. Practitioners will adopt certain interventions
and policies in keeping with trends in malpractice suits. What is evident and
unspoken is that intervention itself elevates the risk of complications in
birth. Childbirth is a delicate dance between the body/mind/spirit of every
woman. When we give over our voices and power in this very basest of senses we
loose that instinctive memory.
This is alarming in the long term, but
also very frightening in the short term. Women are experiencing more rates of
postpartum depression and sexual dysfunction as a result of traumatic
medical-ized birth experiences. Rates of child abuse soar while numbers of women
breastfeeding are low. Women are being bullied into giving up our divine and
sacred sexual power to bring forth life; not just have a baby, not to be
delivered, but to cherish the wholesome experience of birth.
Who are we
saving with these violent and barbaric practices? Not mothers and babies! The
maternal mortality rate in the US ranks 14th world wide and the infant mortality
rate ranks about 40th world wide. This means that there are 39 other
industrialized countries that have better infant mortality rates than we do
including Cuba and South Korea. The USA has the second worst newborn death rate
(infant death within the first month) in the modern world. Many of the countries
who outrank the US in this study, routinely use midwives for normal prenatal,
birth and infant care and obstetricians are considered specialists and care for
women who need more comprehensive care.
Ultimately it comes down to a
matter of information, education and choice. One way to protect yourself from
this kind of blatant disregard of women's rights and outright violence is to
know what your rights and responsibilities are, and be informed about the
choices available to you. Any midwife will be able to supply you with the
information you need to make an educated and informed choice. I personally
believe that standing up for women's rights and removing violence from the birth
room is a giant step towards healing our violent society.
© Jo L. Davis, DEM, PMUS, EMT-B, 2009
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