Arizona Midwife | Arizona Homebirth Midwife | Red Rock Midwifery

An experienced midwife once encouraged me to only think about being the best midwife that I can be. I love the feeling of that, because there are so many midwives and styles of practice out there, yet so many pregnant women, that it is truly not a competition among midwives. We only have ourselves to “compete” with–we only can measure ourselves against the midwife we know we want to be.

I was fortunate to attend a birth this week to assist another midwife. It was very encouraging and educational and I was very grateful to her for sharing her client with me, as well as her practice, for those moments. And because I am following the good advice of being the best midwife I can be, I walked away from the experience excited and renewed with what that means to me. What kind of midwife am I? How do I communicate that (or am I not communicate that) to my clients? How do I want to handle certain issues? What can I do to improve the care and experience that my clients receive from me? Having a new practice means I am still sorting out these issues, but in order for me to help the women I should AND practice by what is in my heart, I have come up with the following qualities/ideas/philosophies. For now, following these can help me actualize where I am with where I am going…..

Educate, educate!!! This is for my clients AND for me! I think the women I have worked with thus far would agree that I am big on helping educate them and encouraging them to educate themselves. I give out a literal book of information (that I have written) at the start of care, so there is always the opportunity for women to figure out what they want before we even get there. I want women to think and decide about everything. Nothing is assumed, no decision is left unturned. From lab tests to ultrasounds to Vitamin K, we will spend literal hours talking about these choices. You cannot make a choice until you know what your choices are. As long as education is a huge part of what I offer, I believe that I will continue to attract the kind of women that take responsibility for themselves, their babies and their healthcare. I will not judge a woman for the decision she makes. It is my job to provide the information and the support for whatever she chooses to do.
Education is also for me! I never stop learning. I love textbooks, I love learning anecdotal fun stuff from older midwives. I am always open to growing and changing and seeing how I can make materialize what I view as being the best midwife I can be. If something isn’t working or if I fall into a pattern I don’t like, I want to change it. The world is big and the amount of information we have available is endless. I strive to be on the cutting edge of research and information that is important to my clients.

Patience!! Yep, I need some more of this. I am working on patience with myself, for the fact that I am where I am and that is OK. I am always wanting to focus on having more patience for the process of birth. I am pretty patient, actually, but I too can get caught up in thinking sometimes that birth has a timeline that we understand. A lot of the time, it just doesn’t. As long as mama and baby are happy and healthy, we must all employ patience. I need to do a better job somehow of communicating this, especially to a first-time mom, before labor. I have been around midwives who attend births on their timeline, and I promise to myself and my clients that I won’t do that.

My other “tools”At the risk of sounding like a crazy New Agey Sedona midwife–I am not just a midwife. I am a healer, a shaman. I have more than technical skills and textbook knowledge. I think most midwives acknowledge that there is more to being a midwife than our practical skills and knowledge. Whether you call it a 6th sense, or plain old intuition, there is so much information we have access to when we are open to it. I am honored and humbled to be able to offer this as well to my clients and am continually working on honing these invaluable skills.
And along the same lines–the Divine, Spirit, God–whatever you want to call it, has an irreplaceable, permanent place in the life of a midwife and in birth. It is only because of this that I can even attempt to do what I do. I continually thank the Divine and realize that I am just walking the path that I have been led to do. The women and babies I serve walk their own paths, even if we all intertwine for just a blink in time.