Exam done and Ina May.

So the exam is behind us and ended up not being so difficult. We will hear the result later in the week. Afterward we all went out for a drink to celebrate and to relieve our pent up stress by chatting our thoughts away. It was fun to get to know some of the participants a little better. I look forward to more interaction during the rest of the course.

Quote of the day:
Ina May Gaskin "A women who is grateful is protected from fear"

On Saturday I went to an afternoon with Ina May Gaskin which was organized by a midwifery centre in Amsterdam. Ina May is a leading authority on midwifery in the US and is famous for her work on "the farm" a village that was started by a group of hippies in the 60's. She is also known and respected because her death rates and the need for interventions during birth are so low.
It was fascinating to hear a bit of the history of how midwifery was taken over and made totally non-existent (went underground) in the 70's and how white male obstetricians took over and hence birth was taken out of the home and the woman's domain into the hospital a man's domain.

She talks about the fact that we as humans think we know better than nature. Nature doesn't mess up, nature, and I would add God, made our bodies to give birth so amazingly. We have taken our 'superior' knowledge and thought that it was better than natures way.
She uses the animal kingdom as an example of how nature knows how to give birth. Animals often do it alone and know how to as they instinctively follow their bodies impulses. We prefer to watch the clock and monitor the centimeters instead of 'feel' our bodies. She talks about how we women have somehow become disconnected from our bodies, are ashamed of our bodies and are fearful of birth and therefore think we should somehow bypass our bodies in childbirth by medicating or operating. Thats definitly the case in the US and till now Holland has always had a philosophy of seeing pain as a positive thing in childbirth but is quickly following suit with epidurals becoming more and more popular.
I might add that she is not anti medicine, is just aware of how we have taken it to the extreme and in so doing by-passed nature's way and become out of touch with how it was intended to be.

There was so much more that was talked about but my mind is still whirring with all I heard.
I am slowly realizing that there is so much more to this birthing thing than I knew. Its fascinating, inspiring and challenging.