[Music]
[Music]
I’d like to start today by introducing
you to Brittany a client of mine a
northern Minnesotan woman who’s also a
mother a Native American a student a
dietitian and Brittany’s first child was
born the way about a quarter of all
American children are born these days
which is by c-section and there were
many reasons for this but the most
prevalent or the one that was given to
her is the main reason for this kind of
delivery was that her pelvis wasn’t big
enough and I want you to think about
that for a moment if you’re becoming a
mother for the first time like she was
she was told right away that really her
body didn’t work and wasn’t made to do
what she thought it had been meant to do
so I met Brittany two years after this
and she was pregnant again and she was
really wanting more from the experience
this time something different and she
sought out a midwife scare in a
different setting for this second birth
because despite what she had been told
she actually did believe that her body
worked and she thought that her best
shot for a different experience would be
with the Midwife scare there were again
a lot of reasons for this she had
experienced a certain amount of
discrimination in her small rural
community because of her health history
and how she’d felt the first time in the
hospital she didn’t feel comfortable
going back there and it turns out that
her intuition about seeking out
something better for her was really
supported by research so I spent about
ten months of course getting to know
Brittany over the whole course of her
care and this is where midwifery care
really shines because we’re building
relationships with our clients Brittany
drove a considerable distance every time
she needs to see me
and each appointment with a midwife is
usually about 60 minutes only about 10
minutes are spent on medical tasks and
that’s usually about all you get in a
typical medical setting but midwives
really treasure that or other 45 or 50
minutes because over the 10 months of me
getting to know her I was not only
learning her normal blood pressure
how much iron was in her blood the size
of her baby whether or not she was at
risk for something like gestational
diabetes but I was also learning what
stresses her out what she loves about
her family how she’s sleeping what
comforts her what foods are giving her
heartburn and so when Brittany’s due
date came around we had a great
relationship one built on trust one
built on time spent and one built that
is really shown through research to
improve the actual birth outcome so a
beautiful September day rolls around and
Brittany goes into labor but there’s a
problem and that problem is that I am
already with Jen another woman in labor
and I’ve already been there all night
she’s clinging to me with every
contraction and as a home birth midwife
the one thing you don’t do is you don’t
leave midstream the shift it does not
end and so I make a difficult decision
and I have to call a colleague in to go
and be with Brittany for her labor and
this colleague drives from over three
hours away she knows how important this
is and I continue with Jen until her
labor actually becomes too complex to
stay where we are we have to move on to
the hospital and so I am crunched up
asleep on a hospital couch in the early
morning hours Jen still in process
having her baby and my phone buzzes in
my pocket and there’s no message it’s
just a picture my colleagues just sent
me of Brittany holding her baby and I
realized something that hadn’t come to
me previously and that’s that yes I
would have loved to be there and she of
course really wanted me there but in the
end it’s not about me in the slightest
Brittany did this she owned it she’s
carrying it forward this was her choice
to make and she was able to see it
through and that’s really what midwifery
care is about at the core it’s about
listening to women helping them find
their power and their choice and most of
the time those choices leading to better
outcomes for themselves and their babies
women everywhere regardless of their
race their religion their family
arrangement their age they always really
remember how they are made to feel when
they’re giving birth
and because we were providers witnessing
this and experiencing this with women at
the sacred time we need to treat it as
such
so how are midwives different well a lot
of people have stereotypes about my
advice maybe a witch in the woods with
some potions and some herbs or you know
more typically I get kind of you know
the hippy with the Birkenstocks and what
do you bring to the birth maybe a
crystal and a stick to bite on in a hot
towel and the Birkenstocks is true for
some of us but the rest is not accurate
most credentialed midwives in Minnesota
and really nationally and
internationally
share thousands of hours of clinical
apprenticeship advanced training
academic training access to and use of
very evidence-based care models
medications therapies but all that is
really a lot less important than what we
do that’s so different from the medical
model and that’s that we listen we take
a lot a lot of time to listen midwives
view pregnancy and birth as a normal
part of life when you’re pregnant you’re
not sick you don’t need to be managed
unless you have it you know another
mitigating health concern and the word
midwife means with woman you’re not
directing their care we are with them as
they are experiencing this part of their
life and so with unhurried conversations
frequent visits always listening helping
them explore what their choices are we
can get better results for them for
their babies for their postpartum time
for their nursing why does this matter
you know you might say well that’s fine
a few people want to have their babies
at home they can be weirdos cool you
don’t need to be a hero and this isn’t a
push for everybody to have their baby
out of the hospital certainly not but it
is a push for choice and understanding
what choices are because despite all the
bells and whistles despite all of our
technology in the United States around
birth and pregnancy right now the u.s.
is about 50th in maternal mortality
that’s women dying in childbirth
think about that for a minute we have a
lot at our disposal and we’re doing
really poorly for our mothers and
countries that are doing a lot better
than us are doing so primarily through
the use of midwives for the lion’s share
of these women’s care in fact even in
the United States as this
shows if you take two groups of similar
women so similarly healthy and low-risk
in midwifery care versus the standard
medical care the rates of a lot of
interventions are a lot lower with
midwives primarily because they’re
taking that extra time c-section
specifically about three or four percent
of low-risk women delivering with
midwives will experience c-section which
is a major surgery to recover from on
top of recovering from having a baby
which at least half of you know what
that feels like and the national average
is about twenty percent and it’s a lot
higher in rural areas in our area
specifically it’s about thirty three and
in very rural hospitals it’s even higher
and less than two percent of women who
have been using midwives say they want
something different from the future
women tend to really love their midwives
once they bond with them which is part
of what makes our experience so
enjoyable as well I had one mom say to
me that part of what makes midwifery
care so specials that midwives
understand the need to move and make
noise and be scared and excited and
sarcastic and quiet and serious and
elated and focused and freaked out all
in one birth experience and the Grace
and the knowledge to know that each of
those has its rightful place and that
midwives have the ability to just be
present through all of this and not just
wait to catch a baby a lot of moms tell
us that they feel like the safety and
security that comes from that
relationship is what helps their labor
to go as it does a lot of times easier
and again that is borne out by research
so midwives really try and be hands-off
we try and be there for support to
listen to provide the care that’s
necessary when it’s necessary and women
like Brittany really get it but she
shouldn’t had to drive two hours every
time she had a prenatal appointment with
me there should have been a midwife in
her own community that could serve her
we need more of us women in Minnesota
and Beyond really deserve to understand
what midwives do and how that choice
could be accessible to them they deserve
to be honored and respected for their
bodies for their families and midwives
really need to stick to using our most
important tools which is our ears to
really listen to mothers and the choices
that they’re wanting to make because
while we might be the professionals in
the whole experience the women are the
experts
on their bodies and their babies and
their whole experience thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
I’d like to start today by introducing
you to Brittany a client of mine a
northern Minnesotan woman who’s also a
mother a Native American a student a
dietitian and Brittany’s first child was
born the way about a quarter of all
American children are born these days
which is by c-section and there were
many reasons for this but the most
prevalent or the one that was given to
her is the main reason for this kind of
delivery was that her pelvis wasn’t big
enough and I want you to think about
that for a moment if you’re becoming a
mother for the first time like she was
she was told right away that really her
body didn’t work and wasn’t made to do
what she thought it had been meant to do
so I met Brittany two years after this
and she was pregnant again and she was
really wanting more from the experience
this time something different and she
sought out a midwife scare in a
different setting for this second birth
because despite what she had been told
she actually did believe that her body
worked and she thought that her best
shot for a different experience would be
with the Midwife scare there were again
a lot of reasons for this she had
experienced a certain amount of
discrimination in her small rural
community because of her health history
and how she’d felt the first time in the
hospital she didn’t feel comfortable
going back there and it turns out that
her intuition about seeking out
something better for her was really
supported by research so I spent about
ten months of course getting to know
Brittany over the whole course of her
care and this is where midwifery care
really shines because we’re building
relationships with our clients Brittany
drove a considerable distance every time
she needs to see me
and each appointment with a midwife is
usually about 60 minutes only about 10
minutes are spent on medical tasks and
that’s usually about all you get in a
typical medical setting but midwives
really treasure that or other 45 or 50
minutes because over the 10 months of me
getting to know her I was not only
learning her normal blood pressure
how much iron was in her blood the size
of her baby whether or not she was at
risk for something like gestational
diabetes but I was also learning what
stresses her out what she loves about
her family how she’s sleeping what
comforts her what foods are giving her
heartburn and so when Brittany’s due
date came around we had a great
relationship one built on trust one
built on time spent and one built that
is really shown through research to
improve the actual birth outcome so a
beautiful September day rolls around and
Brittany goes into labor but there’s a
problem and that problem is that I am
already with Jen another woman in labor
and I’ve already been there all night
she’s clinging to me with every
contraction and as a home birth midwife
the one thing you don’t do is you don’t
leave midstream the shift it does not
end and so I make a difficult decision
and I have to call a colleague in to go
and be with Brittany for her labor and
this colleague drives from over three
hours away she knows how important this
is and I continue with Jen until her
labor actually becomes too complex to
stay where we are we have to move on to
the hospital and so I am crunched up
asleep on a hospital couch in the early
morning hours Jen still in process
having her baby and my phone buzzes in
my pocket and there’s no message it’s
just a picture my colleagues just sent
me of Brittany holding her baby and I
realized something that hadn’t come to
me previously and that’s that yes I
would have loved to be there and she of
course really wanted me there but in the
end it’s not about me in the slightest
Brittany did this she owned it she’s
carrying it forward this was her choice
to make and she was able to see it
through and that’s really what midwifery
care is about at the core it’s about
listening to women helping them find
their power and their choice and most of
the time those choices leading to better
outcomes for themselves and their babies
women everywhere regardless of their
race their religion their family
arrangement their age they always really
remember how they are made to feel when
they’re giving birth
and because we were providers witnessing
this and experiencing this with women at
the sacred time we need to treat it as
such
so how are midwives different well a lot
of people have stereotypes about my
advice maybe a witch in the woods with
some potions and some herbs or you know
more typically I get kind of you know
the hippy with the Birkenstocks and what
do you bring to the birth maybe a
crystal and a stick to bite on in a hot
towel and the Birkenstocks is true for
some of us but the rest is not accurate
most credentialed midwives in Minnesota
and really nationally and
internationally
share thousands of hours of clinical
apprenticeship advanced training
academic training access to and use of
very evidence-based care models
medications therapies but all that is
really a lot less important than what we
do that’s so different from the medical
model and that’s that we listen we take
a lot a lot of time to listen midwives
view pregnancy and birth as a normal
part of life when you’re pregnant you’re
not sick you don’t need to be managed
unless you have it you know another
mitigating health concern and the word
midwife means with woman you’re not
directing their care we are with them as
they are experiencing this part of their
life and so with unhurried conversations
frequent visits always listening helping
them explore what their choices are we
can get better results for them for
their babies for their postpartum time
for their nursing why does this matter
you know you might say well that’s fine
a few people want to have their babies
at home they can be weirdos cool you
don’t need to be a hero and this isn’t a
push for everybody to have their baby
out of the hospital certainly not but it
is a push for choice and understanding
what choices are because despite all the
bells and whistles despite all of our
technology in the United States around
birth and pregnancy right now the u.s.
is about 50th in maternal mortality
that’s women dying in childbirth
think about that for a minute we have a
lot at our disposal and we’re doing
really poorly for our mothers and
countries that are doing a lot better
than us are doing so primarily through
the use of midwives for the lion’s share
of these women’s care in fact even in
the United States as this
shows if you take two groups of similar
women so similarly healthy and low-risk
in midwifery care versus the standard
medical care the rates of a lot of
interventions are a lot lower with
midwives primarily because they’re
taking that extra time c-section
specifically about three or four percent
of low-risk women delivering with
midwives will experience c-section which
is a major surgery to recover from on
top of recovering from having a baby
which at least half of you know what
that feels like and the national average
is about twenty percent and it’s a lot
higher in rural areas in our area
specifically it’s about thirty three and
in very rural hospitals it’s even higher
and less than two percent of women who
have been using midwives say they want
something different from the future
women tend to really love their midwives
once they bond with them which is part
of what makes our experience so
enjoyable as well I had one mom say to
me that part of what makes midwifery
care so specials that midwives
understand the need to move and make
noise and be scared and excited and
sarcastic and quiet and serious and
elated and focused and freaked out all
in one birth experience and the Grace
and the knowledge to know that each of
those has its rightful place and that
midwives have the ability to just be
present through all of this and not just
wait to catch a baby a lot of moms tell
us that they feel like the safety and
security that comes from that
relationship is what helps their labor
to go as it does a lot of times easier
and again that is borne out by research
so midwives really try and be hands-off
we try and be there for support to
listen to provide the care that’s
necessary when it’s necessary and women
like Brittany really get it but she
shouldn’t had to drive two hours every
time she had a prenatal appointment with
me there should have been a midwife in
her own community that could serve her
we need more of us women in Minnesota
and Beyond really deserve to understand
what midwives do and how that choice
could be accessible to them they deserve
to be honored and respected for their
bodies for their families and midwives
really need to stick to using our most
important tools which is our ears to
really listen to mothers and the choices
that they’re wanting to make because
while we might be the professionals in
the whole experience the women are the
experts
on their bodies and their babies and
their whole experience thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
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