I found this video on It’s Your Birth Right! this morning and was so incredibly moved that I had to share it with you all:
What an amazing and empowering story to watch on so many levels! I am inspired by Lindsey’s story in many ways:
First, as a woman who has yet to have any children. After watching this video I am left with feelings of awe, reverence, and respect for what we as women are capable of! I can’t help but be excited about my own potential as someone able (I hope of course) to conceive, grow, nurture, birth, and nourish a new life! (I am giving myself goose bumps just thinking about it!!)
Second, as a labor and delivery nurse. Watching this video reminds me not only of what consumers of maternity care are capable of but also of how much of a difference each one of us can make just by changing our own attitude, educating our own minds, and stacking the cards in our favor to help shape our own experiences! (Now I’m going to be humming Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror for the rest of the day: “If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself, and then make a change! Na Na Na, Na Na Na, Na Na, Na Nah!” J) And as a labor and delivery nurse I hope to help as much as I can help by strategically, respectfully, and appropriately planting little “seeds” of encouragement, knowledge, and know-how in the minds of the many women I am fortunate enough to meet in my personal and professional life.
Third as a labor and delivery nurse who has yet to have children!! Lindsey wrote, “As the years pass and [my daughter] grows I soon find myself sending my baby off to kindergarten! Fighting off the urges to have another baby over the years because of the intense fear I have of having the same birth experience again. I know that its time and I must face my fears head on! All of my training and experience with over 175+ births has surely had to of taught me something! Without looking back I take a leap of faith and trust my body will work!”
I hear nurses I work with all the time say “Oh I am so glad I had my children before I started working here! I would have been a nervous wreck if I was in your position!” My first thought it always “Umm yeah thanks, that isn’t very comforting.” But I also know that I am so very fortunate to have worked where I work before having kids. I think about how much I didn’t know before I started and how I very easily could have been a victim of situations like these. However, as much as I know in my heart that I want to take that leap of faith and trust my body will work as I have seen it so many times before, even labor and delivery nurses like me have that little voice of doubt in the back of their minds. You know the one that says “But can I really do it?” So reading stories like Lindsey’s where even a midwife has that little voice is very reassuring to me that a certain amount of worrying and doubt is totally normal and doesn’t mean that I will fall victim to the old adage “Oh she’s a nurse? Set up the back for a cesarean!”
Forth, as a nurse with aspirations of becoming a midwife. Lindsey wrote, “I knew at the deepest level of my being that I had to help women, educate women” and I have to say, when I have the privilege of being part of an incredibly empowering birth experience I can’t help but think to myself, “I have to be a midwife! I just have too!” Likewise, when I find myself in one hell of a mess at work (especially if a midwifery model of care and the Six Healthy Birth Practices that Support Normal Birth are not followed for any other reason besides true medical necessity) I also think to myself, “I have to be a midwife! I just have too!”
I hope you enjoyed this video as much as I did. Stay tuned for next time as I have been excited to tell you all about an absolutely amazing birth I was lucky enough to be a part of where I had My First Catch.
Nursing Birth 