The essence of midwifery is that there is a space created on the family’s terms in which midwife, parents, siblings, and baby work together to develop and promote the primary role that each family plays in the pregnancy. Baby grows to perfection without permission from any outside sources. The midwife recognizes the baby as a unique individual that is on a journey of her own long before the day of birth. The midwife comes to the mother and baby to celebrate this process. To use skills and knowledge to promote their best health. To share her vision for maternal-child health and to deliver the resources needed to accomplish this for each family.
The goals of the midwife are:
- To ensure that each mother and family hold their baby for the first time and meet them from a place of physical and emotional health.
- That parents go on to hold their babies from a place of wisdom and strength that comes with the transition into parenthood.
- That families are reassured that, as Donald Winnicot taught us
When you hold your baby you are doing something of importance…what happens in your arms is a little part in the way in which you give a good foundation for the mental health of this new member of the community…You are a specialist in this particular matter of care of your own children. (paraphrased)
The midwife defends this paradigm at all points in care while bringing to the table complete knowledge of perinatal care for mother and baby and highly refined skills for the prenatal care, birth, and postpartum time.
Midwives launch parents who recognize the value of their own knowledge and abilities. When the day comes to part, they leave care in vigorous strength and health with access to resources that can be used to build a future of good health for their families.
How has your healthcare become a catalyst for your health?
{read on: But what exactly, is midwifery care?}