Today is May 5th. Some folks think of it as a good day for margaritas and tacos.
It’s also International Day of the Midwife. This is a day, acknowledged all around the world, where we honor the people who quietly walk through fire as a way of life and a profession.
Midwives are the attendants for most births around the world. In some places they are traditionally trained by their elders. In many or most places (and in ALL the places that have better maternity and neonatal outcomes than the USA…) Midwives are very highly trained in sitting on their hands and using them deftly in emergencies. Speaking softly and deliberately, and then briskly and clearly when needed. They are not running wild in the countryside with scissors; they are right there, a strong, steady, and fierce presence at the side of thousands of families every day.
Midwives are my people. I have and have had a lot of jobs. So many jobs….many that people ‘respect’ me for more highly than being a Midwife because they come with a better title or more familiarity. But this is the only job that I ‘am.’ I am a Midwife.
I stopped catching babies a few years ago now, but I have never stopped being a Midwife. Today I celebrate my ‘sisters’ around the world, the kind of maternity care that changes lives while families’ lives are changing, and the deliberate ferocity that is both slow and swift. 💓
