A true midwife operates from a place of deep respect and reverence for life. She understands suffering and is therefore capable of magnanimous compassion. Such a midwife is able to stand in her strength yet be as flexible as a willow branch in the wind, in order to withold her projections and refrain from disturbing the process of labour and birth.
A week in the life of a midwife is varied, interesting, never monotonous and requires endless energy and a core of calm resilience.
The early morning frost singed my fingers and toes during feeding time and as the day warmed up, we all thawed out in the midday sun. Safely ensconced at my mother’s Kwazulunatal ‘Horselovers Haven’, I was blissfully spending time in the herd, lying down with my horse in the grass and playing with him while [...]
We need both dependable information and deep insight: the former from science, and the latter from spirituality. We can’t make it without either of them. But with both, we have a chance.Spiritual birth embraces both hard facts as well as deep insight.
For most humans, witnessing someone else’s distress without becoming distressed themselves is quite difficult. We are like babies in a nursery (terrible example), but if one baby cries, soon all the babies are crying. All humans resonate with the emotions of others and it is not easy to remain calm and allow someone else to express their primal fears, or loss, or grief without intervening.
“There are 3 precious things which I hold fast. The first is gentleness; the second is economy; and the third is shrinking from taking precedence over others.” Lao Tzu. There is, among midwifery circles, much controversy about what birth means, how it should be attended to and what midwives should DO! So today I shall [...]
