"Whoever heard of a midwife as a literary heroine? Yet midwifery is the very stuff of drama. Every child is conceived either in love or lust, is born in pain, followed by joy or sometimes remorse. A midwife is in the thick of it, she sees it all."
Jennifer Worth, “Call The Midwife: A True Story Of The East End In The 1950s.”
Midwives due to their very job as people who help bring human life into the world can't help but be affected by the Beautiful mess of the event. The birth process can invoke a myriad of emotions. In child birth a profound since of the wonder is experienced and as well as a clear indication of the weakness of life. Some things are so deeply rooted in us – instincts and emotions that we are not always aware of but they form us none the less. Consider these two quotes on birthing process from a midwifes persecutive.
“In the cot the baby was sleeping soundly. Gone was the puckered appearance, the discoloration of the skin from the stress and trauma of birth, the cries of alarm and fear at entering this world. He was relaxed and warm and peaceful. Nearly everyone will say that seeing a newborn baby has an effect on them, ranging from awe to astonishment. The helplessness of the newborn human infant has always made an impression on me.” - Jennifer Worth,
“I am almost as overwhelmed as Muriel, the relief of a safe delivery is so powerful. I clamp the baby’s cord in two places, and cut between; I hold him by the ankles upside down to ensure no mucus is inhaled. He breathes. The baby is now a separate being.
I wrap him in the towels given to me, and hand him to Muriel, who cradles him, coos over him, kisses him, calls him “beautiful, lovely, an angel”. Quite honestly, a baby covered in blood, still slightly blue, eyes screwed up, in the first few minutes after birth, is not an object of beauty. But the mother never sees him that way. To her, he is all perfection.” - Jennifer Worth
I think a baby is a self-evident truth in diapers. Just seeing a new born baby will usually evoke pleasant, happy emotions. Being involved even secondarily in the birth process can bring a new found respect for life. Some theologians have noted that the curse of pain in child birth also has a grace. It makes a way for mothers to deeply feel the sanctity of life. For if through pain comes life, then such a process breeds a deep appreciation and wonder for life. Midwives also experience this due to the consistently and proximity they are to the birthing process.
Midwives experience the messy celebration of life that is a birth. A midwife's experience over time could produce indifference even contempt but never before imprinting the paradoxical truth that Life is fragile and yet resolute. Life is seen in its truest form open to the elements, in need of protection, and yet stretching, hopefully, leaning forward into the oncoming succession of moments.
In light of such an impact consider that a every year in the United States alone, some three to five thousand babies are killed by a chilling procedure known as “partial-birth abortion.” The murder of a human child is always a shocking and brutal act, but few things on earth could be as barbaric as the killing of a baby at the very moment of birth. Also it is very interesting that the practice of midwifery is almost nonexistent in America. Coincidence maybe, tragedy truely, on both accounts.
In Him
J. Dawson Jarrell
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