My Philosophy of Childbirth and Midwifery
Naturally, as a midwife, I am highly opinionated. Usually, I keep my opinions to myself, but if you're viewing this page I assume you want to know my opinion, so I'm happy to share.
A woman's body is perfectly designed to give birth. The process of birth works best when interference is kept to a minimum. But intervention in the normal birth process disrupts the body's natural responses, often resulting in more intervention, including surgery. Also our cultural conditioning, fear, and poor health habits work against our nature, making birth more difficult than it need be.
Perfect health is our natural state of being. When we work to align ourselves with Natural Laws, we regain our health and ALL functions of our bodies begin to work normally. This is a Holistic, Preventative approach to healing. This is the Midwifery Approach to childbirth.
In Transformation Through Birth Claudia Panuthos writes, "Healthy Mothers make Healthy Babies." It's simple. It works. When a woman is willing to let go of unhealthy patterns she can replace them with healthful ones. My role is to give her resources and strategies to create an healthy pregnancy and birth.
A midwife does not deliver babies from their mothers or mothers from their labor. She quietly stands guard at the Gates of Life, a specialist in normal birth. An obstetrician, on the other hand, is a surgeon, a specialist in the complications and treatment of high-risk pregnancy and birth. A midwife views birth as normal and stays alert to complications. A doctor views birth as a potential for crises and actively manages it before it can go wrong.
The role of doctors and midwives are very different, yet complementary. But the roles are not interchangeable. When this becomes common knowledge, maternity care in this country will begin its healing process.
Posted by Betsy Melancon at July 3, 2003 01:13 AM