Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Honoring Midwives on International Day of the Midwife

Moving to Virginia to continue my work as a home birth midwife and midwifery mentor to aspiring midwives has been a rich blessing in my life!

I honor the Guardians of Normal Birth... Midwives. Wise Woman~With Woman
I am grateful to be one, myself... to hold sacred space with mothers & fathers as they labor to bring their new ones into their homes.

What an awesome and sacred calling to be a handmaiden in this work! I am humbled by each and every moment that I am able to continue the tradition.

We all have the opportunity to HONOR our Local Midwives and affect the lives of women and babies a world away from us...

Join me and the Home Birth Midwifery Service at the OmMama Birth & Baby Fair Saturday, May 8, Lewis Ginter Recreation Association, from 10-2!

Donate to Midwives for Haiti, a Richmond based non-profit organizing midwives and other clinicians from around the world to instruct Haitian women in delivering prenatal care and serving as skilled birth attendants.

Today is International Day of the Midwife! Celebrate the great joy of being a midwife or being cared for by one! Tell a friend about midwifery and how it has changed your life!

A couple of midwives have changed my life.

First, Janet Scoggin, CNM, in Tempe, AZ. She cared for me and caught my third child, and blessed me with my own calling to become a midwife.

Second, Margie McSweeney, RN/CPM. She was my mentor, taking me on as a green, thirty-something year old apprentice, eager to learn and help. A labor/delivery nurse who helped women at the "Med" in Memphis TN, to give birth without intervention, Margie midwifed mid-south families for 20 years. She challenged me, she taught me and later gifted me her practice when she moved to Boulder, CO in 1999.

A true gem among gems. Margie taught me the heart of midwifery, combining art & skill... being ever-vigilant all the while being ever-patient.

Thank you, Margie, for being one of my most important life teachers.

Midwives do indeed catch the future. It is my privilege. It is my blessing. It is my calling.