May 06, 2004

Intense midwifery

There have been problems with our web site which have affected my ability to upload Diary entries. There are several I am adding today, that I have written over the past week. I will date them according to the day I wrote them.

Sunday May 2, 2004

The Midwifery Intensive event in Melbourne yesterday was quite a day. It was a very large group, much larger than we had originally expected when we were planning the program, and this presented some problems, including a change of venue to accommodate the crowd. This proved disastrous, as the alternative venue we were given was completely inadequate in many respects and we struggled to provide the level of professionalism for which Birth International is noted. However that is another story.

The program begins with a touching, emotional, heart-wrenching tribute to midwifery that reminds us what birth is about - the woman and her power, capabilities, potential, and innate instincts for birth and the nurturing of her baby. The visuals are stunning and Vicki Chan’s words are extraordinary. They remind us of the connectedness of midwives to women, and the complementary role each play in safely guiding the new baby into the world. Without this basic understanding of their role it is impossible to truly midwife a woman through this often tumultuous and sometimes difficult life event. Once these fundamentals are embraced and embodied by a midwife, her approach to those labours where occipito posterior (OP) or breech positions are involved or where a woman is labouring towards a vaginal birth after previous caesarean(s), becomes much easier: these are variations on birth, not potential disasters.

These days much fuss is made about OP positions and as Vicki herself says, for some it becomes “an Olympic event” to get the baby to turn, because of the dread that has been instilled by the thought that this baby is “wrongly placed” for a straightforward birth. Similarly with breech babies. In times gone by, midwives facilitated breech births as a matter of course, not in fear and trepidation as often happens now. The rush to theatre has robbed midwives and doctors of the opportunity to maintain their skills in handling breech births and this has added to their fears. Women wanting VBAC are often discouraged from pursuing their goals by caregivers who play on emotions using threats and poor science to exaggerate the dangers of vaginal births over the much more risky repeat caesarean.

All of these themes are explored and discussed during the day long program. The feedback has been overwhelming in its praise for the speakers and their ability to affirm, reassure, inspire and provide practical suggestions.

I was totally unprepared for the sudden departure of three midwives just after lunch, whose evaluations (written after half of the program had been completed) contained comments about it being “too airy-fairy” “unrealistic” and many more less flattering remarks. As they scuttled down the stairs, having flung their vitriolic, rude and insensitive evaluations down at the door, my first reaction was anger at their unprofessional behaviour and rudeness towards our speakers. These were not midwives but obstetric nurses of the very worst kind and they are a disgrace to their profession. I can only pity women who might encounter them in a labour ward - it seems they have their minds made up, that they are closed and rigid in their thinking and they have no ability to look beyond their narrow world. They certainly appear to be a completely lacking insight into the potentials of birth for women and midwives.

How can they have become so brutalised - surely they didn’t enter midwifery with these ideas and attitudes? What is happening to some midwives that they end up like this?

Posted by andrea at May 06, 2004 10:43 AM