okay i am going to start blogging more about midwifery, birth, reproductive health more.  i find myself in a strange position in that i want to work out my own ideas, and observations, explorations around reproductive health.  and i dont hear/see others writing in the way that i need.  yes, i have had and continue to have some amazing teachers in terms of reproductive health.  and i have significant disagreements with them.

for instance: i am not pro-life.  i believe in abortion. hard core.  let women get abortions how they want, when they want, where they want.  as for the personhood of the fetus, to me the only person who can understand when or how the fetus/babe becomes a person is the woman who is pregnant.  thus, i have a problem with people who talk about ‘poisoning the baby’ in the womb.  and the rights of babies in the womb.  if we focus on the rights of people to decide for themselves, to trust themselves, then we can allow the pregnant person to take care of the pregnancy, fetus, babe, etc.

i also dont see that choosing to have cesarean, or an epidural, or pitocin, or whatever is endangering your child per se.  again if i am going to trust women, i have to trust them to make the best decisions in the situation they are in.  i dont see that home birth is always best.  i have worked with women where home is a dangerous place.  an epidural is a gift and choosing one was an act of empowerment. and choosing cesarean is the best for that family.  yes, i believe in making sure that people have the information that they want to be empowered in the choices that they make.  but the most important information that a person needs comes from their own authentic being in the universe.

i really dont care about evidence-based midwifery.  as i have said before science can act as a guide, but intuition, a person’s intution, is what has maintained the human population on this earth for millions of years.  and i am much more interested in strengthening a person’s trust in their own intuition, than in deciding what is right and wrong for another person depending on the latest scientific studies.

what i am focused on is strengthening one’s intuition with one’s own body.  and having the courage to speak up for one’s own intuition.  in the face of societal pressures to act against one’s own life-affirming voice and vision.

so the question for me, and that i am posing to you, is how, what practices, what paths, strengthen our vision and courage.  our intuition and insight.  our love for ourselves and for each other?

if we are going to survive as a species.  these are the questions, essential, urgent questions, that we need to start asking ourselves.

eta:

i was going to write that i am a ‘research geek’ (i love reading new studies, science discoveries, i am a geek by nature) which is what i balance with all of my intuitional knowledge. but honestly i get so tired of putting the caveat…like, its okay b/c i *really* know the research. my research geekiness is a personal trait of mine. not something that i think is necessary for all those who attend births.