This resource is for both of you to read and talk about if you either have a continuity of care midwife or will be in Birth Center or hospital with staff midwives.
The historic midwife:
If you have done any research about the history of midwives then you probably have only heard this history from a western European historical context and from the last few hundred years.
In reality there are many thousand cultures and many tens of thousands that have come and gone since humans created societies. Just as all cultures build their homes, cook their food, practice religious or ceremonial rites, have a language, construct clothing and have social relationships that are unique to that culture … pregnancy and childbirth is culturally defined.
Because we are all one human species and share the same physiological processes, we interpret these processes within our unique cultural diversity. In other words every human being (whether child, adult or elder, man or woman) swallows down the same throat, has one tongue, same number of teeth and two lips. What we put into our mouth to eat and how we prepare that food is what separates us from one another.
In reality there was not one ‘midwife’.
- In some cultures, a pregnant woman would go off on her own to give birth with no one else present.
- In other cultures, birth was woman’s business and took place away from the village.
- In other cultures, the whole family was involved and the mother, grandmother, aunt, sister or husband caught the baby.
- In still other cultures there were women or men who came to a birth if there was a problem (they might be healers or in touch with the ‘spirit world’.) but all the pregnancy preparation and labour support and help was given by either the woman’s family or her in-laws.
- While in other cultures there were women and sometimes men who specialized in helping women in their communities to give birth but this was on top of their other daily activities and occurred several times a year.
- Only recently (and certainly not in the past few generations even in western European cultures) was there a ‘profession’ of midwifery in which usually women ‘worked, were employed or had a job’ of attending women in childbirth … many of who were relative strangers. The profession of midwifery is new.
There is a great deal of inaccurate information about the historical relationships of women who attend births and whether they were or are respected by members of their culture or not. In India today, the traditional ‘Dai’ came from the Untouchable Caste because they alone could handle bodily fluids. They were recognized as essential but not placed in high regard.
Attending a birth always has an element of the mystical and mysterious. Although not all cultures believe in ‘black magic, witchcraft, ghosts or malevolent spirits’ many do within the context of the spiritual or religious worldview. This means that sickness, injury and death are sometimes connected to these elements.
But not all cultures have those beliefs.
So where does this leave you?
You are pregnant in a modern society that may have a number of cultural groups. Why not research how these groups experienced childbirth prior to modernizing. That’s always fascinating. In fact, in your family some beliefs around pregnancy and childbirth might be culturally passed down and this can include a belief about midwives and their past and present role in childbirth.
If you live in a country where midwives are recognized and are the staff in hospital and Birth Center then all your care will be under their attention although you might see a different one at each ante-natal visit, during the birth and afterwards.
You might live in a country where home birth is an option either with your own midwife (and she might be trained professionally as a midwife and not a nurse midwife) who sees you throughout pregnancy, birth and afterwards or a staff midwife who comes to your home on the day.
On the other hand you might live in a country where midwifery care is not readily accessible to you and the staff in hospitals are obstetrical nurses and home birth is an ‘alternative’ not necessarily supported.
Regardless, your midwife will be working within the modern maternity system that exists within your country even if she is trained directly as a midwife.
Absolutely all midwives in modern countries are playing by the rules of the modern maternity system … although there many be individual ones who are willing to step outside the guidelines of practice.
This should not shock you, surprise you, turn you off or make you angry. Where ever there is a modern medical system this absolutely has to happen.
Think about it. Women who still live in cultures with absolutely no access to medical care, have no options at their births. Whatever happens, the good or bad, is dealt with by those present … including anyone helping that woman give birth. Everything about traditional birth is considered ‘normal’ and ‘natural’ even when the outcome is undesirable. There is no choice, no option, no place to go to, no one else to help.
Your midwife and your Birthing Better Childbirth Preparation skills
There is still a great deal of debate about the role of professional midwives and the safety of birth. When you become a skilled, well prepared pregnant woman and a skilled coaching dad your ‘safer’ birth goes a long way to support midwifery care.
It would be lovely if all expectant parents had their own continuity of care midwife regardless of the situation. At present, midwives advocate that they are the best birth professional to attend ‘normal’ births or ‘low risk’. Sadly that eliminates many expectant families. You could become one of those just because there is no way to know what your birth will be like and the unexpected happens too often to be ignored.
When you have prepared your pregnant body to give birth, learned your birth and coaching skills so together you can work with your baby’s efforts to be born then use these skills on the day you give birth then you will be able to achieve your goal for having a conscious birth within the embrace of midwifery care or not.
Midwives need you to be skilled:
In the political climate of modern maternity care, the occupation and profession of midwifery is constantly being challenged and questioned. As an expectant family you have a huge positive or negative role to play in whether midwives will be available for other families and your children in the future.
Your Birthing Better Childbirth Preparation skills elevate your role within the partnership you fuse with your midwife. You have a responsibility to reduce, prevent and eliminate the most common causes of medical intervention … long, drawn out labours experienced by women who do not know how to cope with, deal with, handle or manage the natural occurring pain of labour.
Step up to the plate. Do not think about what your midwife can provide to you. Focus on what you can do to make her job easier and your birth most effective and progressive.