Historically, I have focused my extra-familial time participating in the social justice movement through working with survivors of violence. I worked as a Woman's Advocate both for a Domestic Violence agency and also for a Sexual Assault agency and in that time I learned many incredibly important lessons about life. I learned my strengths as a humanitarian and my weakness in viewing so much violence. I learned that although I am no doubt supposed to work with women and children, the specific issue of violence tires my spirited heart.
When I became pregnant I knew that my time working with victims of sexual assault would soon end, for I did not intend to continue in the field once my son was born. Nevertheless, throughout the 39 weeks of my pregnancy I continued to throw my proverbial fists in the air demanding a non-violent world. In the meantime, I researched all that I could on pregnancy, birth and beyond. It was in this time that a paradigm shift emerged and I began to understand violence in a whole new way. Instead of the path towards non-violence beginning with a protest on the streets of my town, I quite simply came to believe it started with gentle birth. Gentle birth as a very real act of social justice…how profound an insight! In fact, the new perspective was so profound that it truly changed my life forever.
I brought the reality of gentle birth as an act of social justice to the birth of my son. My husband and I found a wonderfully wise midwife and a supportive doula that together encouraged and supported us to experience the most peaceful and empowered waterbirth in our home. Not long after the arrival of my son, the pieces began to fit together as to how I would seamlessly blend my need to participate as an activist for peace, my passion for working with women and children and my lifelong love for pregnant mamas and babes. It was in this time that path to midwifery became so brilliantly illuminated it simply could not be ignored.
In order to revel in the growing enthusiasm to practice as a midwife, I became trained as a birth doula. The experiences I have had as a doula thus far have only served to solidify the understanding that homebirth midwifery is without a doubt the path I am deemed to take. I have come to whole-heartedly believe in the potency of natural, gentle birth and find great hope in the fact that more and more women are again reclaiming the power of their laboring bodies and choosing to take their birth experience out of the patriarchal medical system and into the safety of their own homes.
There is indeed a long path of education, observation, experience and practice ahead before I am able to officially join the birthing world as a midwife. However, there are a many promises that I am ready to make. By harnessing both the holistic and humanistic approach to pregnancy, labor, mother and child, I vow to help every woman that wants a midwife to follow and actualize her deepest birthing dreams. Through adherence to the MANA core competencies and simple humanitarian compassion, I vow to help western society realize again the integrity of midwifery, brilliant in its paramount safety to mothers and newborns. I promise to assure communities that in healthy pregnancies, homebirth is the most wonderful and welcoming space for a baby to first experience this world. I vow to encourage woman to see the beauty and nourishment of breastfeeding for extended periods and to forge ways that encourage the opening of the societal eyes that frown upon it. I promise to continue to work towards a safer, less violent, more beautiful, more harmonious world through the practice of peaceful homebirth midwifery. Lastly, let it be known that I do not take lightly the honor and integrity inherent in the ancient practice of midwifery and intend to do my best to join the birthing community with the utmost veracity.
