January 01, 2003

Resolutions for the year 2003

2003 has arrived, and with it, many mixed emotions. There are forebodings of war and anxieties about the skills of our world leaders to maintain the peace that we all so desperately crave. There is a rising level of cynicism about the motives of big business and their control over world affairs, both at a broad political level and at the microlevel of our daily lives. Tensions between personal rights and community benefits are becoming more apparent. As we all find ourselves in an increasingly hectic and soul sapping working environment the struggle to achieve some balance between work, play, family commitments and community responsibilities grows sharper and more urgent.

With this background, what can we look forward to with some degree of certainty? The one basic fundamental that touches all of us involved with maternity care is that life, indeed, does go on. Women will continue to get pregnant, and babies will be born. The needs of those mothers and babies for safety and security is as desperate as it has ever been and we must continue to find ways to give them the best possible start in life. The future of us all rests with those mothers and babies, for it is those children who will eventually be making the decisions that will affect the health and well being of the planet we all inhabit. We must make as sure as we can that they start life gently, in a loving and calm environment where they can develop the trust that will underpin their endeavours in life and affect their view of humanity and the world.

It’s the time of year for New Year Resolutions, and bearing these thoughts in mind, I am setting some goals for myself this year:

To do more to make sure that there are viable options for women giving birth
To continue to foster midwifery care as the best model for ecological births
To reach out more to midwives in Australia to remind them of their skills and to re-awaken their basic philosophical beliefs in natural birth (having done so much work overseas in the past few years, I want to make sure that the message is being reinforced at home too)
To support those political campaigns, such as NMAP, that hold huge potential for systemic change for the benefit of the entire community
To work towards making sure that women are aware of their options for birth and are able to make informed choices.

At a practical level, my objectives to achieve these goals will include:

Publishing a new edition of The Midwife Companion and an updated edition of Preparing for Birth: Mothers
Finishing a new book for childbirth educators
Expanding our web site to include more information for parents (and hopefully a new book for pregnant women)
Doubling the number of workshops that I present in Australia whilst not cutting down on the many programs we have scheduled for the UK
Taking my message to Europe (there are already plans for Spain and Italy in the pipeline)
Having my books The Midwife Companion and Empowering Women translated into Portugese, primarily for the Brazilian nurse-midwives.

There are other big plans afoot that are taking shape as well and more of these later. In the meantime, I intend to start this ambitious program by using the next week of my holidays to get really stuck into the writing before the workshops start in late January!

I hope that you have made some birth-related resolutions for 2003 too, and that you can start planning soon to bring them to fruition. No matter what the rest of the world is getting up to, the babies that will be born this year need all the love and care they can get, we all have a responsibility to make this happen, in one way or another.

Happy New Year!

Posted by andrea at January 01, 2003 11:45 AM

Comments

Andrea, Happy New Year. You really energise me with your wonderful diary entries. All power to you and may all our dreams come true so that women may labour safely and without being overlooked or bossed about, but with the security of knowing that a kind and sensitive midwife is supporting their instinctive needs for labour and birth. That babies are welcomed into a gentle world and that couples start their life as parents in optimum circumstances.
Love
Caroline

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