midwifery ideals/long

[Mary Murphy]

A quote from Jan Tritten... Midwifery Today.   We do midwifery to help families have good, healthy, and if possible, joyful pregnancies and births. Our greatest love should be for women and their babies. The bottom line for you as students and aspiring midwives is to keep your focus on motherbaby—You are answering a calling, one of service, not one that is self-serving. If you don't feel deep in your heart that you are called to be a midwife, please do something else. This is not work in which you will make a lot of money. In these times, it is one of the more uncertain jobs you can undertake.   My hope is that we, as enlightened, alternative thinkers and doers, can somehow do better. I had hoped there would be mutual respect and a sense of harmony, or better yet, unity with a lot of diversity (my emphasis) For those who are called to midwifery, there awaits a life that will take all the love you have to give. You have the awesome honor of being "with woman" on her most important life passage. You are there, often the first one to touch the new life sent directly by God to reside awhile on this planet. You are there when people become a family, when maidens become mothers. This is a powerfully spiritual experience and you are there. You are a key person in this life-changing passage. The deepest humility is a necessary characteristic of being a midwife. You will always be learning because the women you continue to serve are your most important teachers. Honor them and their babies by putting them first, before your numbers, before your license—even before yourself.