Inspiring

I read an awesome post by a midwife today. For context, the discussion was about birthing at home with a midwife or without any trained attendant (freebirthing or unassisted childbirth). When several midwives said they did not recommend this, it was suggested that they did not "trust birth". She wrote in response:

I trust birth. I trust it as much as I trust any other bodily function or force of nature. I trust birth to be birth just like I trust the sea to be the sea and the wind to be wind and the rain to be rain. Which means, most of the time, I can sit back and gaze in awe at the elemental power and beauty of the sea, the rain, the wind and the birth. But I also know that within that power and beauty there is a force of nature that is beyond my, and anyone else's, control.

I carry an umbrella in my car, just in case the rain demonstrates that wild, unpredictable side.

I watch my kids closely when they are swimming in the sea, just in case that beautiful, blue water becomes suddenly rough or has hidden under-currents that they happily step into and suddenly pull them away.

I shutter my windows and bring in my pets and remove lawn chairs when the wind threatens to become a hurricane or tropical storm.

And I watch birth, ready to shelter her with my umbrella, or lift her from the currents, or really batten down the hatches and face the storm head on when that force becomes a force to be reckoned with.

So, yeah, I trust birth, but even more, I respect the fact that it's a force of nature that can be wild, unpredictable, and powerful in mostly beautiful and sometimes destructive ways.

I'm not going to say anyone who had a succesful UC was "lucky". The odds are stacked in your favour that your birth, just like the sea or the wind or the rain, will be beautiful and safe. I don't think it's foolhardy or stupid to go swim at the beach or take a walk in a gentle summer rain, but if g-d forbid, you get swept away in an undertow you really don't want to be the only one on the beach who knows how to swim.