A rather lengthy post in honor of Midwives Day!

I have been trying to decide what I should write about for this day. I mean yeah, I could go on about WHAT a midwife is, the history if midwives and just rant and rave about what jacked up deal midwifery has gotten in the last 40+ years.... OR I can talk about what I know and think and have experienced first hand with midwives.
I personally think that what we know today of midwives has changed in the last 5 years alone. Due 100% to the amazing power and wisdom of women and their desire to get the word out, their desire to demand something different, or knowing in their hearts there has to be a better way.  Don't get me wrong, WE NEED OBs!! We need them for a medically assisted birth. Women who are too high risk for their pregnancy to be called "normal" or "healthy." OBs are WHY in many cases women and babies live through their birth experiences. OBs are trained surgeons. OBs can get a baby out faster than I can say "Harry Potter."
We also know that OBs ARE GREAT at handling serious women's reproductive issues. They are medically knowledgeable individuals who can take a potentially life threatening, fatal situation and heal it. So, NO I am not dogging our OBs, I am dogging our DEPENDENCY AND CONDITIONED SINCE OF NEED for them in the perfectly healthy, normal conditions of womanhood, pregnancy and birth.

Midwifery is not only about birth, it about the well women care you receive. It is ensuring that the woman is cared for through all her reproductive years and sometimes beyond. It is ensuring that women are able to retain what nature has placed before them. The ability, the right and the wisdom to make, grow and have babies as they desire; as they should. Making choices for their families and the future people of society, our children.

I feel that those who do not choose midwifery care for whatever reasons are actually unaware of the true ability and capability of a midwife. For so long it has been assumed that if you use a midwife, your having a homebirth. If you use a midwife, you do not get ultrasounds (have the option). That if you use a midwife, you don't get pap smears. If you use a midwife, you cannot get an epidural. That you cannot use a midwife if you have gestational diabetes or high blood pressure. That you cannot use a midwife if you have had a c-section. Basically, you cannot or should not use a midwife if there is anything in your medical history that required medical attention when it came to your last birth. Well, you CAN'T use a midwife if you don't have a vagina. ((shrug))
Midwives are trained and are able to manage all of the above. All of the above to a certain degree of course. Certain level of risk that is. Midwives have access to and carry oxygen, pitocin and other medically necessary items that maybe required during a birth to stop a hemorrhage & to stitch a parineum. The truly uncommon-common things that happen during a birth or after a birth that are beyond her scope of practice, most midwives HAVE OBs in their pockets! Meaning, a midiwife can pick up the phone, get a client into a car or walk down a hall and find a backup of the trusty OB persuasion.
I have YET to meet a midwife that does not hold herself to a high safety standard. I have yet to meet a midwife who attends home or hospital births who has me questioning her genuine knowledge and competence. I have yet to meet or read about a midwife that regularly loses mothers and babies. We have ALL heard the stories of  So-in-so who had a midwife who did not have xyz or did xyz during her birth prenatal care. We hear the stories.What about the stories of women who walk away from thier birth experience in awe amazed and emotionally WHOLE ready to start their new life as mother knowing it is and was because of the care they received from their midwife? In my world, MANY.

There is always a person in the crowd your speaking with about your awesome midwife or your amazing homebirth who says "What happens if...." or "Women died ALL the time in childbirth at home"

There will ALWAYS be a "What happens if" person and there will ALWAYS be a "Women died all the time in childbirth at home" person.  Its still true. Women and babies die EVERYDAY in the year 2010 during childbirth. FACT.
Here in the US, that number is HIGHER than the rest of the industrialized world and we also have the MOST  medicated hospital births. I could spit stats at you all day, but that is not the direction I want to take this.
Back in the day, women died, babies died because they did not have a choice. There were no OBs and hospitals. If there were, they would have what we call "risked out" meaning, the would have been properly evaluated before being taken on by a midwife OR the chain of events during her pregnancy or labor would have put her in the NOT-SO-QUALIFIED category for a homebirth and she would have been sent to an OB to be cared for or transported to a hospital during her labor due to the fact she had a MEDICAL CONDITION that required MEDICAL CARE. (hows that for a run-on sentence!?)

Now, just imagine, if in America, we did it like the rest of the world and saw midwives for NORMAL, HEALTHY, well woman, pregnancy and birth and were ONLY referred to an OB when a serious medical condition came up? Do you suppose we would be less afraid? Do you think we may be less conditioned in society top accept what we are told about our bodies, our pelvises? Will we be quicker to question ourselves or our doctors? Know what questions to ask? Perhaps we maybe more open to our births or the births of others? Less open to elective c section?  What would we tell our daughters about being a woman, about their bodies and about birth?  Do you think that the rates of breastfeeding maybe higher? Do you think that the rate of unwanted pregnancy may go down? Do you think that because of the knowledge women will then carry with them perhaps the choice to abort a baby may be more of a thoughtful decision? Do you think America would see women as the decision makers for birth, bodies and choices in womens care? Would we see the unborn a precious little people; our futures and not unfeeling, unknowing and unconscious beings?

I'd like to say, something as important as midwifery care having such an impact on the grand scheme of things is absolutely possible. I'd like to say, it will happen as we reeducate our women and our law makers, that it will be a no brainer. I'd like to say, that its possible with out a fight.

I would like to ask every woman today, if anything, question your own perception of Midwifery Care and learn more!