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Reflections on another tour of duty

It is time for me to head home again after a hectic five weeks in the UK and Israel. The terrible bombings here in London on Thursday were a shock to everyone and the images on the news broadcasts and in the papers have been haunting and harrowing. I was in Dublin when the news came through and it brought the workshop to a standstill, as everyone re-lived memories of living through the unpredictability of bombings that were a part of daily life in Ireland for many years, and thought of friends and family that might have been affected in London.

Getting back to London that evening was surprisingly easy. The mainline trains were running by the evening and with the closure of the Tube stations, the main railway stations were almost empty, except for the many police keeping watch. The city was like a ghost town - people feel the need to be safe at home with family when events like occur.

The past five weeks have offered the usual mix of experiences. The same themes emerged as they have before: shortages of midwives; the encroachment of the medical model of care; the changing attitudes of women towards “quick fixes”in labour; the insidious messages of the drug and technology companies; the undermining of confidence and trust in normal birth and women’s abilities to give birth safely without help; the emphasis on trying to avoid “risk” at all costs.

It is hard to know where childbirth is headed. Sometimes I think that women and their aspirations have changed o much that it will take a whole generation for the results of birth interventions to be acknowledged and understood, both from a personal and a societal perspective. Just as there was a generation ( or two) of women who adopted bottle feeding of babies as being safe, easier and more scientific, only to discover the ramifications and consequences of this decision for the health of their children, maybe it will take a generation or two of highly medicalised births for the same message to be realised about birth. Breastfeeding is now universally accepted as best for the baby, so perhaps in time, natural birth will be seen in the same light.

I feel sure that the wheel will turn again and that the importance of undisturbed, drug free births on the future physical and emotional well being of women and babies will be “re-discovered”. I just hope that I am around to see it - it would make all the hard slog of travelling and facilitating workshops worthwhile.

As soon as I get back to Australia, it will be a mad rush to get everything ready for Birth International’s participation in the big midwifery event of the year - the International Confederation of Midwives Conference, to be held in Brisbane, starting on July 24. This will be wonderful opportunity to catch up with lots of midwifery colleagues and friends from around the world. I am looking forward to it!

Posted by andrea at July 09, 2005 09:39 PM