Quote

I just came across this quote in a Midwifery Today Newsletter. I think it states so eloquently who I aim to be for my clients at their births.

"You are a midwife. You are assisting at someone else's birth. Do good without show or fuss. Facilitate what is happening rather than what you think ought to be happening. If you must, take the lead. Lead so that the mother is helped, yet still free and in charge. When the babe is born the mother will rightly say, 'We did it ourselves.'"

— Lao Tzu, in Tao Te Ching

Great Quote

"By medicalizing birth, that is separating the woman from her own environment and surrounding her with strange people using strange machines to do strange things to her, the woman's state of mind and body are so altered that her way of carrying through this intimate act must also be altered."
~Marsden Wagner~

Conference Notes

I took lots of notes while at the conference...
Thought I would share bits a pieces with you from time to time. Here is a great quote from an Egyptian doctor.

Women are not dying because of diseases we cannot treat; they are dying because societies have yet to make the decision that their lives are worth saving.
~Dr. Mahmoud Fathall~

Quote from Midwifery Today Newsletter

I just received this in my email earlier this morning. I couldn't agree with it more.
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My experience has been that if labour is allowed to progress normally, outcomes for mother and babies are better. This does not mean that existing complications of pregnancy or potential problems in pregnancy are not assessed and dealt with expeditiously.
I feel that all too often the introduction of prostins and oxytoxic preparations, stretching of the cervix and early rupture of the membranes are deployed for varying reasons.
Manual manipulation of the cervix to force it to full dilation often ends with cervical incompetence, cervical tears, arrested labour and retained placenta.
My theory relative to retention of the placenta is that because all the normal processes have occurred prematurely, the readiness of the placenta to be detached is delayed. I refer to this as placental embarassment, commonly called retained placentas.
— Movena Bowe-ClarkeNassau, BahamasExcerpted from "Cards and Letters," Midwifery Today, Issue 74