Here is an excerpt from the October 29th LA. Green Festival Panel “Sacred Birth ~ Sacred Earth ~ Exploring our Relationship to Mother Earth and the Evolving Paradigm of Birth”
Panelists: Midwife Aleksandra Evanguelidi; Activist, Author and former Midwife Anneke Campbell; Doula and Childbirth Educator Julie Freitas; and Activist John Quigley. Moderated by Stephanie Dawn, ASLP
Opening Statement by Stephanie Dawn (www.stephaniedawn.com
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“Presently, as a counselor and educator who works with midwives, doulas and other birth professionals to support the restoration of the sanctity of birth and the reverence due a birthing woman all over the world, I see the exertion of ‘Power Over’ women, birth and babies happening regularly. It is this very dynamic that I was protesting against 15 years ago, whether it was the clear-cutting of old growth forests in Canada and Northern California, to the drilling for oil by Occidental petroleum that was and continues to pollute the forests, drinking water and the people of South America, and that I continue to see happening all over the world in birth.
Dubai, United Emirates with doulas (whose presence has been scientifically proven to reduce labor time for women) being banned from hospitals
Australia, with midwives being forbidden to attend homebirths or be hit with extremely high fines to the tune of $30,000
Locally a midwife was recently convicted with a felony for attending a birth as a student midwife, when her mentors were unavailable.
What I also see via social networking and in my own programs, and on the world stage in the Occupy Movement, is a formidable Feminine voice rising up all over the world, that represents the Earth, that represents Birth; that which I call the Divine Feminine, speaking forth, in word and deed, from both men and women, a resounding NO! NO to business as usual. NO to the desecration of our Mother Earth. NO to birth as we know it. No to the continued use of power OVER women, babies and birth.
As Jeannine Parvati Baker, esteemed midwife and educator who has passed on from this earthly realm once said: “Healing Birth Heals Mother Earth”. How we are birthing our babies, how we are treating women and their mates is intricately tied to the humanity that now walks Mother Earth.
Here’s some statistics:
Data from the Natality Data File, National Vital Statistics System
The cesarean rate rose by 53% from 1996 to 2007, reaching 32%, the highest rate ever reported in the United States.
In 2007, nearly one-third (32%) of all births were cesarean deliveries (1). Although there are often clear clinical indications for a cesarean delivery, the short- and long-term benefits and risks for both mother and infant have been the subject of intense debate for over 25 years (2). Cesarean delivery involves major abdominal surgery, and is associated with higher rates of surgical complications and maternal re-hospitalization, as well as with complications requiring neonatal intensive care unit admission (3–5). In addition to health and safety risks for mothers and newborns, hospital charges for a cesarean delivery are almost double those for a vaginal delivery, imposing significant costs (6).
Let me take this moment to acknowledge, as the statistics stated, that many cesarean births are medically required. Many, however, I believe are the result of women and men who are unaware of their rights and their power in birth. For centuries women have abdicated their power to a ‘medical authority’ and it’s time to take it back.
Now let’s look at something that is equally as dramatic that we do to our Earth here in the US; mountain top removal mining. Mountaintop removal mining is a form of surface mining that requires the removal of the summit or summit ridge of a mountain in order to permit easier access to the coal seams. After the coal is extracted, the overburden (soil, lying above the economically desired resource) is either put back onto the ridge to approximate the mountain’s original contours or dumped elsewhere, often in neighboring valleys. Mountaintop removal is most closely associated with coal mining in the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States.
Peer-reviewed studies show that mountaintop mining has serious environmental impacts that mitigation practices cannot successfully address, including loss of biodiversity, as well as human health impacts from contact with affected streams or exposure to airborne toxins and dust.
Whether we are cutting deep into mountains to extract her precious resources or cutting deep into women to extract their babies, I feel we have lost our connection to our own wildness, that we have lost respect for the wild and for the feminine aspect of life. Consequently we allow the powers that be to subdue our power via drugs and ultimately control it and surgically ‘assist’ birth, which is one of the most natural and transformational experiences that we as humans experience. The vast majority of babies are therefore born in a battle zone, many in a chemical cocktail that is devoid of natural oxytocin, the love hormone, where power struggles are the norm, and they grow up to continue that way of being and perpetuate this in our society.
As Robin Lim, Midwife and Founder of the Bumi Sehat Birth Center in Ubud, Bali, says “The moment of Birth is a fulcrum and it can determine if babies are born with an intact ability to love and trust or an impaired ability to love and trust.” Babies are routinely immediately cut from that which has given them life, the placenta, and then taken from their mothers for whatever the doctors deem they “must’ do to the babies. So in a human beings first moments, this crucial time of bonding with the external world, they learn that life on earth means separation, anxiety, fear and abandonment. That life is something to be defended against.”
