----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, September 07, 2004 5:05
PM
Subject: Re: [ozmidwifery] doula
article
>>Since this discussion started i
have also been working my way through a brilliant book, and it is pointed out
in there that The arrival of the trained support person is more evidence of
the medicalisation of birth.
I think this statement is true. Birth has
become, for the majority in a lot of cultures, a medical event.
I don't think trained support people are
adding to that, but are trying to support the minimisation of
medicalisation of birth. Trained support people, as in doulas are trying
to bring back the tradition of women supporting women during birth. As are
midwives, who in my opinion are trained support people.
>>That the selling of the need for a
professional doula undermines a womans belief that she can give birth by
herself, and is disempowering.
I have heard this too, but if we are
really talking about "professionals" undermining a womans belief in herself,
then couldn't the same be said about midwives? I would say that if we look at
things with that thinking, then the "need" of a midwife is disempowering too.
I am not saying that I think like this, I am just pointing out the hypocrisy
in the statement.
Once upon a time the people birthing
women had around them were their female relatives or the village women who had
attended other births. Traditional midwives did not know all the medical
jargon, or need it, they did not know how to do an episiotomy or ve, they
didn't need them either.
I don't know what I am trying to
say.....lol! I just find it distressing that their is so much of, women need a
midwife but they don't need a doula. I think we would all agree that in an
ideal world, most women wouldn't need any of us. I think though, that women
want other women around at birth, some may not, but it seems the majority do.
Unfortunately we do not have the tradtitions being passed down from mother to
daughter or aunt to niece or friend to friend etc, so there is a case for
midwives and doulas.
Why is it so terrible to some midwives for
women to want a doula? Most doula courses teach about the traditions we have
lost, it is, in our disconnected world, one of the only ways to learn them,
apart from books etc. I know from my doula course, I learnt so much that I
wish had been passed down through the generations. I gained so much trust
in the birthing mother and baby...........trust that I would've had if I had
grown up with women, in community, watching others birth their
babies.
Anyway...... it all comes back to what I
believe is the essence of midwifery and doulaing, to be there for the woman,
to support her and her family and to provide information for
families.
Some people say that if midwives were more
available and 1-2-1 care was available that there would be no need for doulas,
but I think if women had more trust in their bodies and there was common
knowledge throughout the females today, then, in most cases, there would
be no need for any "professional" in birth. The role of the midwife and the
doula would be filled by the women of society.
Love Abby
