I just finished watching the season premiere of Call the Midwife, a show about a young wealthy nurse-midwife in 1950's England, who heads over to a nunnery in East London and is face with conditions she has never seen before. As an American, we were put through the wringer in over-emphasis of Europe's terrible conditions in this time, compared to our terrible conditions. (Of course the textbooks tried to make it seem like we were less terrible, bah!) The Midwife, Jenny, encounters Syphilis, a premature birth, post-partum hemorrhaging emergency, conditions far beyond her scope of belief and overwhelming sadness for the women. You can watch the season premiere on PBS, located here. The show will run every Sunday until November 4.
One of the women, the one who went into premature labor, Conchita, had 24 other children by her English husband besides the newborn. Jenny is astounded with their poor living conditions and does not see the love the family has for what it is. It is only in the end, after the baby survives against all odds (30 week premie was not usually viable in the 1950's, regardless of birthplace); that Jenny finally sees. "We must see what love can do." It is a wonderful sentiment. It finally makes her realize that she is not the martyr for the work she is doing, it is the women who are the heroines for all that they do.
Apart from being a nunnery, you can see the sisterhood in Midwifery...it is a part of womanhood; it is every one, it is everyone's job. It is so wonderful, and so comforting, and so...indescribable. It just reinforces my decision to become a CPM. I want to serve women and their families, I want to care for them as they birth their babies (unlike a doctor who "delivers" "it" "for them"), I want to see them through the darkness and into the beautiful kaleidoscope rollercoaster of life. I can't wait. Midwifery is not always beautiful, it is not always easy, it is not always profitable....but what it is always, is a journey. It will always be a journey of life, a pathway of nursing the goddesses who bring for life, nursing new life, and nursing passing life. I want to be a part of it.
One of the women, the one who went into premature labor, Conchita, had 24 other children by her English husband besides the newborn. Jenny is astounded with their poor living conditions and does not see the love the family has for what it is. It is only in the end, after the baby survives against all odds (30 week premie was not usually viable in the 1950's, regardless of birthplace); that Jenny finally sees. "We must see what love can do." It is a wonderful sentiment. It finally makes her realize that she is not the martyr for the work she is doing, it is the women who are the heroines for all that they do.
Apart from being a nunnery, you can see the sisterhood in Midwifery...it is a part of womanhood; it is every one, it is everyone's job. It is so wonderful, and so comforting, and so...indescribable. It just reinforces my decision to become a CPM. I want to serve women and their families, I want to care for them as they birth their babies (unlike a doctor who "delivers" "it" "for them"), I want to see them through the darkness and into the beautiful kaleidoscope rollercoaster of life. I can't wait. Midwifery is not always beautiful, it is not always easy, it is not always profitable....but what it is always, is a journey. It will always be a journey of life, a pathway of nursing the goddesses who bring for life, nursing new life, and nursing passing life. I want to be a part of it.
One day, I will be proud to call myself a Midwife. I will serve life.
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