Humanitarian Midwifery

My midwifery career was indeed a calling.  At the time I did not necessarily want to be a midwife.  I'd had my oldest child at home in the 1970's.  There were no midwives doing home births in our area then and we didn't feel comfortable having an unassisted home birth, so we traveled to The Tennessee Farm where we could have the home birth we wanted.  That was where the seed of midwifery was planted.  The midwives were so gentle and loving and the way they helped me birth my baby daughter was so very special, I wanted that for other women.
My midwifery career actually began on a walk, a prayerful walk down a country lane.  In the shadows of the large trees that bordered the country lane, I prayed in a sincere fashion. "Please, I am ready. Show me what I am to do.  I'm ready for my life's work....whatever it is I am supposed to be doing, show me." Not long after that I was invited to a friend's home birth as a photographer.  My second daughter accompanied me to the birth as she was six months old at the time and was still nursing.  There I met the local woman who was serving as community midwife.  She invited me to help out at some of the upcoming births she had scheduled. I learned so very much from her.
One of my favorite lessons was when we were doing a birth for a woman who didn't have much food in the house for her five children.  Our senior midwife came back laden with groceries. I'll never forget it, she said, "Sometimes you get paid for doing the birth, and sometimes you have to buy them groceries."  A beautiful lesson that truly embraced the type of midwifery that I wanted to practice.  Humanitarian midwifery.  I started apprenticing with this most wonderful midwife and she has taught me many things over the years.  She has since retired, but I am blessed to have a most talented midwife extraordinaire as a partner in attending births. 
That was thirty four years ago years, that first birth.  I have attended hundreds of births since that time including the births of my grandchildren.  Each birth teaches me something.
As with the birthing mother, those in attendance are also pushed beyond preconceived (no pun intended) notions of limitations of endurance.
The whole universe moves over to allow the entrance of one tiny human being.  The ripple effect is felt, the cosmic entanglements begin.  Tiny yes, but with great impact they arrive, bringing lessons for all they encounter along  the way.
Teachers they are, tiny teachers of universal truths.
When they come into this world, we think we are going to teach them everything we know...instead, they teach us how much we don't know.