Last night I watched a movie that came out in 2001, called Midwives. It was about a lay midwife in rural Vermont who had delivered several babies. She was experienced and devoted to her calling, as well as being well respected in her community. One night during an ice storm, a laboring woman died while in labor. The midwife did everything possible to try and save the woman’s life, including an attempt to transport her to a hospital, when due to downed phone lines, she could not summon an ambulance. Not wanting to lose the baby as well, the midwife performed a C-section with a kitchen knife. The baby lived.
The state then put the midwife on trial for manslaughter, for the death of the baby’s mother. The midwife had acted upon her intuition, being totally present in the moment. Later on, she second guessed herself, wondering if in fact she had made a mistake, as the prosecutors tried to imply. Given the circumstances, if she had not listened to her inner guidance and done exactly what she did, it is very likely that both the mother and the baby would have died. Even if the woman had planned a hospital birth, she may not have made it to a hospital anyway, due to the ice storm. The midwife had relied on her experience and her integrity. Her attorney, her husband, and a few others recognized her heroic efforts which were worthy of a medal.
I was very disappointed in this film because at the end, it left viewers with the false belief that homebirth is not safe and that it is dangerous. It made lay midwives look incompetent, insinuating that they do not have enough training. Babies have been born into the world, at home, for millennia. Women have entrusted their laboring bodies and their babies into the care of midwives since the beginning of human history. In the past century, our government and the medical giants have taken away our personal freedoms. They have instilled fear in people and in a woman’s ability to bring forth life. Pregnancy is not a disease! Giving birth is a natural phenomena that does not normally require drugs. Society has been brainwashed and women and babies have suffered immeasurably from so called medical advancement. Doctors and nurse midwives rely on machines, rather than experience and wisdom. Doctors frequently ‘schedule’ births to fit their own time constraints. Women often request drugs because they have been convinced that they should not feel pain. From the moment a hospital born baby takes its first breath, it becomes property of the state, and the parents are merely given the privilege of raising it.
All three of my daughters were born at home, under the guidance of lay midwives, into a loving and welcoming environment. I still give thanks every day for these sacred events in my life. I am still more grateful that I managed to keep my daughters out of the clutches of the medical ‘professionals’, raising them myself into beautiful, healthy, and happy human beings.
