One of my more interesting classes this term has been my history of midwifery and birth centers class. Over the last couple of weeks I've really delved into how midwives were introduced to our country, and how they have manged to survive despite the push to get rid of them. It's funny that like racism, the prejudices against midwives still persist today. Study after study have shown the important and positive impact midwives have on women and yet many Americans have never heard of one. Last week for the International Day of the Midwife, Ina May Gaskin had an editorial in the Daily Beast about why doctors need midwives. Here is the link:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-05-05/doctors-need-midwives-ina-may-gaskin-on-us-maternity-care-crisis/?fb_ref=article&fb_source=home_multiline#
It's insane that despite our advances in medicine, a woman giving birth today is twice as likely to die during childbirth than her mother. How is that possible you ask? The c-section rate is horrendous and the complications following a section are killing women. It's so funny to me that everyone keeps searching for an answer to these stats when the answer is right in front of us! We need more midwives! We need the support of the medical community but we also need the support of women. Somehow we've gotten away from the notion that birth is a normal process-though we women may not like it, pain and struggle are a part of the labor process. We shouldn't be surrendering our bodies to cut happy surgeons all for time's sake. We need to get back to a time where women are empowered and believe in the magic of what their bodies can do. Only then can we make birth safer for women in this country.
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