Why are we so misinformed?

I am currently a community midwife and a student in AAMI. I am also a homebirth mom. I am constantly amazed at the amount of misinformation parents are given about medical procedures that are done to them or their babies. I must say that this experience that I am going to share is one that left me speechless in the moment but will certainly make me speak louder in the future.

I was at a prenatal of a mother than was going to have her first baby. We had been talking about nutrition and the baby. She was clearly very happy to be pregnant. Everything that she put in her mouth was of concern to her. She had started exercising to improve her health. She had found out that the baby was a boy (which I won't address just yet). The conversation came around to circumcision. She lit up like the most exciting thing was going to happen and said "Oh, I want one of those, can you do it?"

What was she thinking? Where was she getting information from? How can this fit in with a healthy, natural and  undrugged homebirth?  She might as well have said "Episiotomy wow I can't wait to have one of those!"

I could only believe that she had not been educated on what a circumcision was. My daughter has assured me that people can hear the truth about things having to do with there children, knowing full well what they are, and that those people, parents, will still choose what is clearly harmful to their babies.

This is doctors talking about what they have found in performing circumcision.



This is an actual procedure. Very hard to watch. Everyone should watch it to be informed and to know what the truth is.

This is only a small part of the truth about  circumcision please research it further.

We can hope that those that see the truth will act on it.

Midwives gone?

A few weeks ago some one was at my cabin having a look around with my son. He mentioned as he was taking them on tour that I , his mother, am a midwife. The young couple was surprised as they had been told that midwives no longer exist. Like the dinosaurs we are extinct. A few weeks later a family member mentioned that it would be better if I were called something else as the word midwife made her think of things mid-evil. I can only imagine what thoughts those are.

We still exist and and midwifery is growing. Too many women have been put through the hospital assembly line and found themselves and their babies lacking in ... something.

There must be some other way. Birth must have another face to it. Surely for thousands of years women gave birth without all of these gadgets and interference. Women birthed their babies lived and thrived.

The earth is flat is what they were told and they believed it and even harmed those that said differently. Change comes slow. Truth will prevail. "Birth is safe, interference is risky" - Carla Hartley. Reminds me of a song we used to sing to my children when they were young. God Bless the grass that grows through the cracks. They roll the concrete over it and try to keep it back. The concrete gets tired of what it has to do. It breaks and it buckles and the grass grows through. God Bless the grass.

How we start anything in life affects how it plays out. How we birth our children lays a foundation of how we parent. A builders know that it is important to build a good foundation as it is one the hardest things of a house to repair if it cracks.