Look at the woman sitting in front of you. Really look at her. See her as she is now. Right now. In this moment. Today. What is her story? What is she asking? What is she needing? What is she bringing? Who is she? Who is she really? What are her hopes? Her dreams? Her wishes? Her fears?
And what is she bringing that not even she knows about?
Midwifery means seeing each woman for who she is and really seeing her, seeing that spark in her when even she cannot sense it.
Because you know it is there.
Is midwifery care? Is it science? Is it art? Is it trust?
What is midwifery and what does it mean to you?
To me, it first meant that I knew I was in safe hands. That I could trust completely.
Midwifery meant falling in love. With myself. With my baby. With life.
Later midwifery meant being called out on cold rainy nights, away from children and family, away from obligations. It meant being available at all times no matter what. It meant being available to step into that timeless zone labouring women occupy.
It meant giving back a hundred times what I had been lucky enough to receive because I knew how valuable it was. Because I knew what a difference it had made in my own life.
It meant being present.
Midwifery is trusting.
Trusting life and that a greater plan is somehow at play and that all we can really do is humbly sit at the feet of what is unfolding before us.
Midwifery celebrates life.
It is life.
