Articles by Month: May 2008

Midwifery as the basis for peace

Mindy Levy is a remarkable midwife in Israel, who has established a birth centre in the north of the country near Nazareth, and who also offers a home birth service. She was one of the driving forces behind both of my visits to Israel. On my last visit, she offered to arrange a workshop for Palestinian midwives, which took place in East Jerusalem in June 2005. This was a wonderful event, if somewhat disjointed due to the langauge difficultlies and the haphazard arrival of midwives due to the onerous checkpoint formalities at the border of the West Bank. The midwives from Gaza had been unable to attend because the border has been closed completely for 4 days by the Israelis.

However, we had an interesting day and Mindy said she would like to follow up wirh another meeting between Israeli and Palestinian midwives. Today I received the following email from her - she has achieved her goals at last.

Dear All,

The last 2 days were big ones- the culmination of months of work and years of planning and dreaming. Sponsored by COHI, nine Israeli midwives and nine Palestinian midwives spent 2 days together at my birth center in Beit Lechem Haglilit talking about women, babies, birth, midwifery and mothering in the Middle East.

It was a party. The atmosphere was festive, loving, hopeful, and professional. We learned much about midwifery on "the other side" and had many opportunitied to explore the differences and similarities, the strengths and weaknesses of each health system.

We understood very quickly that midwives are midwives, regardless of their religion and nationality. Our passion about our profession is universal as are the warmth and love that eminate from our bodies and souls. Midwives are midwives are midwives.

We fell in love with each other instantly. We forgot that there had been a time when we were wary about this first meeting, when we felt fearful of meeting the "enemy" and encountering our own prejudices. There was no fear. There was trust, openness to reveal weaknesses and difficulties, a lot of curiosity, and a great willingness to share and to listen.

We are now planning the continuation of this connection and the sky seems to be the limit. When we parted ways this afternoon, we spoke of when we will meet again, not IF we will meet again.

I feel as if I had given birth- happy, exhausted and overwhelmed. And indeed a birth has occurred- the birth of this incredible project. Now we need to hold it, get to know it, nurture it and some day teach it to walk.

When the birth center emptied I could still feel the energy buzzing in the building- the presence of these midwives was a true blessing for the birth center. I am thankful that I had the honor to host this birth.

In the concluding circle one of the midwives raised the possibility that the end to the violence in our region could be begin by eliminating violence in birth. We all agreed that we really do have the power to change the world, one birth at a time. This might sound a bit much to the non-midwives among you, but this is one of the things that gets us through the pain, blood, sweat and guts of birth, knowing that what we do does makes a difference. Birth is important for both women and babies.

Anyone who feels motivated to support this project financially is encouraged to do so through the COHI website or directly to me.

Mindy

Posted by andrea at 11:36 AM