When mainstream media reported that a pregnant person had become “the laughing stock of a group of top US obstetricians”, what they didn’t understand was that they were witnessing an attitude that is foundational to the behaviors identified as obstetric violence.
At a key moment when maternal/child health, morbidities, and mortalities are being discussed in national health care arenas, birthing people and midwives are not being included in those discussions.
Portland, Maine is the home of MANA’s 36th Annual Midwives Conference! Mark your calendars now for Oct. 11 - 14, the height of the Fall Foliage Season, and come enjoy all that this coastal community has to offer for #MANA18!
It was 1982. I was unexpectedly pregnant with my first child (why it was unexpected I don’t really know… the diaphragm was in the drawer instead of where it belonged). I came across Spiritual Midwifery and heard the word midwife for the first time in my life. A midwife cost $500 and a doctor $3,000. It wasn’t such a hard decision really for someone with very little money and no insurance. Paying off that midwife and birth center took two years, AND, I was privileged enough to be able to access this care when so many others couldn’t or didn’t even know it existed.
