Biting my tongue

Have you ever been in a situation where you know that you cannot speak freely, even when you have the utmost desire and urge to do so? Do you realize just how hard it is to bite your tongue?

That would be me, when an entire family started pretty much bashing all midwives.

Well, you see, they ALL delivered their babies with DOCTORS! That's the way it has always been and always will be. DOCTORS DAMMIT, not hippy midwives!

Ok, so they didn't say "hippy", but the undertones, body language and underlying ignorance were clear.

"When is the DOCTOR coming to see her?" (Uh, the doctor doesn't come in unless she needs a c-section or an operative vaginal birth. The nurse-midwife attends her labor and birth.)

"She's never even SEEN a midwife for her prenatal care! Only DOCTORS!" (Well, that's odd, because there are several nurse-midwives in her practice. Also, all of the practices in the area have physicians and nurse-midwives.)

"Well, she doesn't want a midwife. She only wants a DOCTOR!" (Well, a certified nurse-midwife is an advanced practice nurse who cares for normal pregnant women. She has about 8 years of college and a Masters degree. Also, the midwives in your group are generally the professionals who are present at the majority of the births.)

".........(silence)............" (Just so you know, I'm in year 6 of 8 towards becoming a nurse-midwife. However, I will let the midwife know of your preference for a physician to attend your birth.)

..............bite tongue..................

.............exit stage left.................

.............silently scream inside..............

Was I too snarky at the end? After all the attacking they were doing to the profession of midwifery, and their obvious ignorance of what midwives are trained to do, I just had to get my own little barb in there. You insult midwives, you insult ME!

(Can you tell that I'm also not that big on the whole "customer service" attitude of upper management towards the lowly staff nurse?)

Things that make me happy

When a baby latches on to the breast easily with no assistance.

When I work hard with a mom to breastfeed for the first time, and with lots of support, the baby latches on.

When educating a mom about pros and cons of breast vs bottle feeding, and she decides to give breastfeeding a try.

Mom and baby have extended skin-to-skin time after birth.

A posterior lying baby spins and is born OA - vaginally.

Pushing phase in a primip that is less than one hour.

Laboring down!

Helping a woman achieve birth goals that she has set, no matter what those goals are.

Making a difference to a new family.

Turning a negative experience into a positive one.

Teaching labor support to family members at a birth & seeing them apply those learned techniques.

Purple - cause it's my favorite color. Just not in newborn babies.

Taking the "difficult patient", finding out what she needs, and being able to give that to her.

Being able to provide some semblance of normalcy in a big hospital setting.

When my favorite CNM tells me how much she loves it when I am caring for her patients - and she tells me this in front of the patient.

Oh heck, just working with my favorite CNM makes me happy!

Being a silent witness to miracles.

Why Choose a Midwife: update on the video -- UPDATED AGAIN

From the Our Bodies, Ourselves website:

Our Bodies Ourselves, like many other birth organizations and activists, has long believed that all birthing women should have access to midwives and to a midwifery model of care. A new video, “Why Choose a Midwife?” provides an overview of this model and serves as an advocacy tool for midwifery.

Our own Judy Norsigian was interviewed for the piece, and explains the Our Bodies Ourselves position on choices in childbirth:

We want to have more women having vaginal births after cesarean available in the hospital setting, we want to have more certified nurse midwives in the hospital setting, we want to have more trained, licensed midwives in the home birth setting.

She also acknowledges a woman’s right to make her own educated decisions with regard to childbirth, explaining that “women and their partners choose the risks they want to take when they choose a home birth or they choose a hospital birth.”

Other topics covered in the 12-minute film include safety, home birth, the problems with some routine hospital interventions, the attention provided by midwives, cost, and choice. Also featured are Gene DeClerq, PhD (Boston University School of Public Health) and Marcie Richardson, MD (a Massachusetts Ob/Gyn), with additional footage graciously provided by other filmmakers. A volunteer film editor, with guidance from a group of volunteers from Our Bodies Ourselves and Massachusetts Friends of Midwives, created the piece.

Although the film is somewhat focused on Massachusetts, those interested in adapting the video for their communities can contact June Tsang at junetsang23 at gmail dot com.

Technical difficulties: We apologize, but needed to take the video down at this time.

At Your Cervix here -- Something is very fishy as to the *why* this video was taken down. I hope that Our Bodies Ourselves can please clarify the REAL reason. It seems very fishy. Was there pressure to take the video down? It's a very pro-natural, pro-midwifery, pro-homebirth, pro-women's choice video. Sorry if I sound highly suspicious, but let's face it: midwifery has been a battle for CENTURIES. Certain people of higher power want to remain in a higher power over women's health care. Midwives and midwifery supporters want for women to have the power over their bodies. This video even has physicians who support midwifery - imagine that!!!!

The only other option I can think of is that this video has gone viral with it's support of midwifery, and the bandwidth was overloaded from so many people viewing this video and reposting it. I have posted the video here. I have seen this video posted on other blogs. I have seen it posted and reposted on Facebook.

UPDATE on the update!!! This is from Rachel, at the very first link on Our Bodies Ourselves:

"Sorry, folks. The video included several clips from other films on midwifery/birth for which permission was given to include them in the film. However, after we posted it we found that there was one portion of the clips that had been cleared to include but not to post publicly. If we can resolve this issue in some way, we’ll repost. We’re thrilled that you liked it, and apologize for any inconvenience!"

Thank you very much Rachel, for letting us know what the problem was. I hope it can be rectified soon, or edited, so that we can view the video again. ~~AYC