I am a midwife in the United States, currently working at a birth center. I began this blog as a student, and found it challenging to find the time to write. My journey into the world of birth has been quite circuitous. To say that catching babies was no where in my “first draft” life plan is an understatement. Life had other plans, and I am grateful. Along the way, I became a massage therapist, and doula, and birth became my guru. The mothers, babies, fathers, and partners who have allowed me to bear witness to their births have ushered me into my calling as a midwife.
This blog is my attempt to chronicle my journey of becoming and being a midwife–the blissful, the absurd, the painful and the transcendent. It is also my attempt to step courageously into my role as activist, bringing attention to those parts of our system that are wildly out of balance, and working to create a new paradigm for birth. Reverence for birth is reverence for life.
You can find me on Facebook at MidwifeMusing. Come on over and ‘like’ my page, discuss birth with me, tell me who you are. Let’s work together to create a new paradigm of birth.
midwifemusing 
I just read your posting from 2013 about your journey to becoming a midwife. I am sure you are well along the way and have new experiences. Good for you! I am a nurse midwife and share some of the same sentiments, motivations and experiences. Thanks for your articulation.
Doulas are witnesses for the current birth scene. They do very important work. Having said that, I am struggling with this idea that women shouldn’t be encouraged to claim their experience – say, perhaps the woman you wrote about who after her 2nd stage experience felt (justifyably) that she had been raped. Could she not be encouraged to report that nurse to the nurse’s boss, the nurse’s boss’s boss and the head of the hospital? As far as I am concerned, women need to be organizing and calling abuse, abuse. We are much too tolerant. When in practice, I did tell women to report bad experiences. This kind of behavior is really destructive. My opinion but I would appreciate hearing your opinion to my ideas. Susan Greene, Cleveland, OH
Hi Susan–
Thank you so much for reading and for your thoughtful response. I absolutely agree that women and their partners should be encouraged to claim their own experiences and report abusive behavior. I definitely don’t think the doula or any other support person, whether nurse or midwife, etc, should shoulder this without encouraging her to find her voice. This birth took place when I was a relatively new doula, and at that time, I really didn’t have all the tools needed to help my client (or myself) deal with the situation in the most productive way. This blog post (I’m not even sure I was aware of this at the time) was written as a way for me to process my own trauma surrounding some of what I saw as a doula. Since then, I have absolutely encouraged women to report obstetric violence, and/or abusive language/behavior. I didn’t mean to insinuate that doulas should bear witness without also taking and encouraging appropriate action. I so appreciate your thoughts on this. Best, Erin Graham, Savannah, GA