Sunday, June 12, 2011
Midwifing the Midwife
This calling is truly a blessing...to be included in and welcomed to such an intimate and special time for families is a gift. Seeing these women transform to mothers in those precious first moments and watching the awe in the faces of thier partners...these are times to be cherished. However, that is not always how it works out, despite all the best preperations and intentions. These are times when this calling can and will break your heart. The highest highs and the absolute lowest lows...these are wrapped up together in this calling...and we as the guardians of birth must be able to guide families through it all. We must also be able to nurture ourselves through these times and hold fast to our faith in the birth process....so, a question...who midwifes the midwife?
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The "lowest of lows" is the one thing scaring me to death about starting in the midwifery field. How do you get through such a hard experience? And how do you know you did everything possible to prevent such an occurence? I am so worried I'd be thinking there was more I could've done, if only she were in a hospital, etc. How do you overcome this personally?
ReplyDeleteIt is a work in constant progress. As midwives, we are good at nurturing others, but often have to learn to nurture ourselves. This post is the beginning of a story that I have to tell, but just have not been ready and able to yet.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great question, there is often no one to "midwife the midwife" unless we build a supportive network of like-minded professionals who can understand what we deal with on a daily basis. Thank goodness for the internet, it allows us to be physically miles apart yet one in spirit. I once came across a blog called "the lonely midwife". Seems we all feel this at times.
ReplyDeleteRachel, this so true! We are often left with no one to midwife us. I am blessed to have a good team of sister-midwives to work with, however, sometimes I need the support of someone with more distance from the situation. One of the reasons I started this blog was to encourage support for each other.
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