Let’s Hear it for Midwives

Today is International Midwives Day.

In a week when routine episiotomies are finally called into question by the medical community, I am grateful for midwives’ belief in the perineum’s elasticity.

In a month when the ACOG’s journal, Obstetrics and Gynecology, publishes research which concludes, “a strong association of epidural with fetal occiput posterior position at delivery represents a mechanism that may contribute to the lower rate of spontaneous vaginal delivery consistently observed with epidural,” I am grateful for midwives’ active support of women laboring without pain relief.

In a year when the Cesarean birth rate continued to rise, I am grateful to midwives’ patience, both in helping patients understand common causes of Cesarean births and how to avoid them and in allowing labors to unfold at their own speed.

In a culture where 90% of women deliver with the comfort of an epidural and 99% of women deliver outside the comfort of their own homes, I am grateful midwives present an alternative to medicated, hospitalized birth.
A personal thanks to Cheryl, who caught James, and Jennifer, who was supposed to be there.