Hello all. I wrote a few impassioned words to Sally when I read her e-mail 'consuming passions'. Sally suggested I send it to the list and so I have added it to the end of this e-mail. Logging on to send it, I discovered more stories of passion, devotion, and service. Love is a powerful force, the most powerful force on earth and I am in awe of you. Hannah, you are amazing. You were at the NSW MA executive meeting on Wednesday night. Bright, beautiful and caring as ever, contributing to the discussion with your usual intellectual acuity and you had had that amazing, tumultous experience that morning! I am totally amazed. Isn't life astonishing. We have no idea what each person is dealing with in their lives when we interact with each other. Heather, Felicity and Hannah your stories are so moving. The power of words to evoke the depth of human passions. And then I read the 'baby' midwife, Melissa's story and my heart, body and soul are crying. Our narratives are so powerful, so important and so necessary. Economic rationalism, the societal operating system of patriarchy, has gone mad, out of control, and is threatening the very essence of us humans. Those of us with insight, inner knowing, must do all we can to assist others to consciousness. Talking talking talking. Writing writing writing. Challenging Challenging Challenging. Yes, it is painful, yes, it is difficult, yes, it is even dangerous and often a lonely path. Ruth Lubic's 10 points for professional (and I find that word a patriarvhal construct in itself - it seeks to divide and to differentiate - but that's the one she used) success are useful and good for us to revisit (for those who may not know her - Ruth Lubic is an American women who established a birth centre in black Harlem, with incredibly disadvantaged women and helped the women achieve fantastic outcomes and that all despite the most powerful, insidious and dangerous opposition. Ruth came to Australia in the 70's and helped the midwives at Crown Street hospital in Sydney set up the first Australian birth centre) her points are Ruth Lubic�s Points for Professional Success 1. begin with the needs of the people you serve 2. take care of all the people of the nation 3. trust your caring instincts 4. learn to tolerate uncertainty 5. choose your professional colleagues for their caring philosophy 6. be aware of the limits of the medical model 7. avoid anger (consumes energy) 8. avoid bitterness against professional adversaries 9. base design for change on the best science available 10. remember the people you serve are your strength We midwives must work with women and their families. We must also be very aware that all of us, women and midwives have been corrupted by the economic rationalism, patriarchal approach to life and every one of us has tendrils of that 'cancer' within our psyches. This corruption leaks through into our beings and behaviour in unconscious ways. Self awareness activities help us to realise and to contain such corruption. I'm not sure if this corruption can ever be entirely eliminated, I suspect it can only be controlled when identified and noticed. it is too deeply embedded into who we are. So here's my response to Sally. If you think it is over the top, I make no apologies. It's me. :-) love, Carolyn -----Original Message----- From: Sally Tracy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Carolyn Hastie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Saturday, 21 August 1999 10:22 AM Subject: Re: consuming passions >Dearest Carolyn >wow.......what a great and heartfelt response..........won't you post it on >ozmid?...it's the very thing a lot ofthese students who are so keen and so >critical in their thinking at this stage need to and would benefit from thinking >about.........we all benefit from hearing these words....thankyou so much... >lots love >sallyt > >Carolyn Hastie wrote: > >> Hello Sally, great words of great wisdom. >> >> Pregnant and birthing women do teach us. >> >> But mainly when we are in a situation that allows us to learn that way. My >> knowledge has come from the many hours with women, and my knowledge has been >> honed and refined with each woman. My understanding was radically altered >> when I was privileged to work with women in a comprehensive, relatively >> autonomous manner (private practice with visiting access). Their courage fuelled my advocacy and support >>of their individual process. Now I am back in the 'system', I find that my >> knowledge is being eroded, pierced and sanitised. Fear is replacing trust >> and the routine monitoring replacing understanding and faith. >> >> I read Marina's impassioned outburst and feel congruency with her remarks. I >> too am upset with my 'calling'. I love being with pregnant and birthing >> women and am honoured to be present when a new life is born. I love it when >> women are strengthened by their experience and exhilarated when families >> emerge ecstatic and whole out of the fire of intensity and passion of the childbearing >> experience. It is the hardest work in the world to surrender one's body to >> childbirth and when women are in their power, what Goddesses they/we are. >> >> However, I am distressed to find the whole fear paradigm sticky and >> pervasive. It seeps into our souls when we are not looking. There are many >> issues that the current culture is spawning. I meet women frightened beyond >> belief by antenatal classes, their antenatal 'care'. The problem solving >> orientation of maternity care provision is out of step with the normalising >> approach needed to help women feel safe in their bodies. I sadly think >> 'anti' natal is not too outrageous a label for what passes as pregnancy and >> childbirth surveillance in this country (and others I know, but we are >> here). What really gets me is that women are scrutinised mercilessly >> during pregnancy and birth - 'managed' with dogma, ritual and rhetoric and >> practices that smack of abuse and cruelty (I have a deep and abiding fear >> of those scalp electrodes being twisted into babies scalps - but as one >> midwife said to me the other night when I was commenting on the abundant use >> of fetal scalp clips in our unit 'it's better than a dead baby' oh save us >> from this view of childbirth as an inherently evil destructive process) - >> the introduction of fingers, probing, hurting and searching to 'determine >> progress' and the insertion of plastic crochet hooks into women's vaginas to >> 'break the waters to speed you up' seems barbaric and insulting. Women are >> still 'confined'. The strapping on of monitor belts, tight so they record >> properly, especially if the woman is assisted to move about in labour, but >> still tied to the monitor and the electrical outlet, is in some way, for >> me, part of sado masochistic paraphernalia. The primeval part of me is >> feeling nauseated and wants to scream NO and yet the educated, acculturated, >> professional part of me is indoctrinated to 'go along with' and incorporate >> these ritualistic tools into my 'care' (surveillance) of birthing women. >> And then, once the baby is born, the woman and her baby are given the >> 'flick'. No one really cares what happens once the baby is out of the >> woman's body. Once she is out of hospital, no not even out of hospital, >> postnatal care really is the cinderella of maternity care, she is on her >> own. Yes, there is the Early childhood clinic, Tresillian and GP's and >> NMAA, but our culture really doesn't care generally. Certainly nothing like >> the intensity that pregnancy and childbirth generates. Such concern for the >> 'product'. >> >> I 'know' that birth is safe and that some women aren't, but we health >> professionals (I know I'm talking generally here and of course, some are!) >> are not helping women feel safe in their bodies. We don't do anything to >> assist women to ground themselves, to develop faith in their bodies and >> their processes, faith eroded by technology and the culture of 'having >> things', rather than valuing the human spirit above all things. sigh. I >> know that our adversarial culture leads us to doubt, to fear, to 'do' rather >> than 'be' with women. And women do blame rather than explore when >> processes are hijacked, seemingly in out of control ways. The whole >> ethical web around birthing is fractured and stained. Our psyches as a >> species have been warped by the 'fear based system' of patriarchy that has, >> like an out of control cancer, grown into and over our birthing ecosystem. >> I believe this is a feminist issue of the greatest importance. Drug abuse >> is out of control in our society. Kids are killing themselves in increasing >> numbers. I believe these phenomena are linked. >> >> Did you read the woman's story in the lastest OBCnews? I thought it was, >> although a sad indictment, a great example and pertinent because it >> graphically illustrates the sort of mischief that can be done in the name in >> antenatal care. >> >> It is time. Time to examine ourselves, our way of working. Our philosophy, >> our partnerships, our way of being. time to stand up and be counted. Time >> to truly work with women and their families to co create our future. We have >> to stop waiting for someone to do it for us. >> >> Yours in midwifery, >> >> Carolyn Hastie -- This mailing list is sponsored by ACE Graphics. Visit <http://www.acegraphics.com.au> to subscribe or unsubscribe.
