“When you destroy midwives, you also destroy a body of knowledge that is shared by women, that can’t be put together by a bunch of surgeons or a bunch of male obstetricians, because physiologically, birth doesn’t happen the same way around surgeons, medically trained doctors, as it does around sympathetic women.”—Ina May Gaskin, midwife
“When intervening becomes routine, meaning there is no
reason for it, only risks remain.”—Henci Goer, author of Obstetrical Myths vs. Research Realities
“Experiences have clearly shown that an approach which ‘de-medicalizes
birth, restores dignity and humanity to the process of childbirth, and returns
control to the mother is also the safest approach.”—Michel Odent, French obstetrician
Today, May 5, is International Midwives Day.
It is a day to honor and thank midwives for their world-wide contributions in creating supportive and safe birth environments for mothers and babies. I feel enormous gratitude for the midwives, childbirth instructors, and La Leche League leaders who shared their time and knowledge with me so many years ago. They changed my life. I felt the power of birth and breastfeeding because of their support. I also feel gratitude for the many mothers who shared their births and breastfeeding joys and challenges with me. While my knowledge from books of birth and breastfeeding was helpful to me, it was the mothers who taught me the most. I gradually learned to listen more and appreciate all the challenges many mothers face during birth and breastfeeding. I learned that babies have a lot to tell us, when you learn their ways of communicating. Their hand-to-fist worried expressions signaling hunger, and their satiated, drunk-like smiles after nursing. Their need for skin-to-skin touch and their angry cries, when deprived of their mothers' gentle presence and touch.
Mothers taught me that what I thought I knew about breastfeeding wasn’t necessarily so. Some babies could nurse in the strangest positions, and mothers and babies were fine despite the belief in set positions for breastfeeding espoused by the newest research. I saw how a mother’s birth influences whether breastfeeding succeeds to the satisfaction of both a mother and her baby. Birth and breastfeeding is so intimately intertwined. Birth either facilitates breastfeeding, or it makes it an obstacle course in which mothers and babies must fight to jump over all the hurdles laid in their path by their families, medical professionals, employment, or our formula-feeding culture.
Mothers need to feel safe in their environments to give birth and to initiate breastfeeding. Feeling safe may vary from person to person. I know that I never felt safe in hospitals. I believe that the reason for my ill-at-ease feelings in hospitals was because my mother died of breast cancer when I was 14 years old. She had spent 2 years in and out of hospitals (even the well-known cancer hospital, Sloan-Kettering Hospital in NY City could not save her). At that time, all I had to do was walk in a hospital, and the smell and memories would flood my mind. I fainted or almost passed out a number of times in various hospitals for some 20 years. I don’t faint anymore in hospitals, but I still am uneasy in hospitals, and am distrustful of medical practices that easily disregard or disrespect people. I believe I was a prime candidate for a home birth. I always believed that if I had to go to the hospital for my births, I would end up with a c-section. So I have enormous gratitude for the midwives, childbirth instructors, and La Leche League leaders I have known from our birth center; who formed such a wonderful community. With many thanks, and gratitude: to Maryann, Jeanne, Susan, Martha, Keri, Mimi, Carol, and Karen.
And in memory of Mary-Ann and Jan, who can only be with us in spirit, but left us with warm thoughts of friendships, laughter, and dancing to the tune of shared hopes and dreams for a better world of empowered, healthy moms and healthy babies.
Copyright 2022 Valerie W. McClain
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