A Midwife Crisis

   

    Hot searing pain shot through my body. Could I pinpoint the pain? No, it was everywhere. I had looked forward to this moment, well sort of. Maybe a little beyond when I would hold our first child. We hoped for a son, but the ultrasound was taken too early to determine the gender.

   In labor, pain is not taken but used to help bring forth life. I made the mistake of taking a local pain killer in an IV. This suddenly stopped the forward advancement of the labor. The pain did not slow or lessen but my ability to focus or even breathe became impaired.

    As I lay in a strange pain filled dream I thought of the old bible story I learned as a small child. Eve’s hand held the partially eaten apple. In my mind I blamed her for this horrible pain, if only she hadn’t eaten the forbidden fruit.

“To the woman, He said, “I will make your childbearing pains very severe; with painful labor, you will give birth to children.” Genesis 3:16a.

    Suddenly I heard the nurses say it’s time to push. I looked around, but the room seemed to be spinning. Where was the doctor? I turned to see my young husband trying to be strong for his pale suffering wife.

“Come on Honey, you can do it,” he said while holding my hand.

Let me just pause here…

    If you have ever had to watch a birthing video, like me, you have been traumatized. There is nothing glamorous about this natural process of bringing life into the world. It is nothing short of a miracle that any woman survives such an experience. I am thankful for modern medicine and the advances that have been made.

   The doctor showed up just in time to catch our baby boy. I remember seeing the doctors dusty black dress shoes splashed by our son’s first tinkle as his new born cry filled the room. The first birth was the hardest of the three and because of the rough labor I decided to try a midwife for the next two babies.

     How did a “midwife” get her name anyway?  In Old English the word midwife comes from two words “mid”, meaning with and “wif” meaning woman. It plainly meant “with woman” who is giving birth. Such a woman would have to understand what normal delivery looked like and have the patience and kindness to help the expectant mother pass through the painful contractions to deliver her child.

    Midwives are not an English thing they are a woman thing. As I thought of Eve, she was probably the only one who didn’t have one. After being fruitful and multiplying so often she might have invented this concept.

    At a horrible time in ancient Jewish history two midwives were used in a vital way to bring forth deliverance to the captive Israelites enslaved in Egypt. The story goes that the Hebrew midwives were commanded by the Egyptian Pharaoh to kill all Hebrew baby boys that were born, but to spare the females infants. In this way he had hoped to create population control among the Jewish slaves.

    These women, Shiphrah and Puah, feared God and refused to follow the command of Pharaoh.

When confronted by the growing population of Jewish boys being born they explained that Jewish women were more vigorous than Egyptian women and gave birth before they could attend to them. As a result of their protection of the Hebrew expectant mothers and male children God blessed them with their own families.

     I appreciate this story because it is a picture of women helping other women nurture life. In the bleak picture that is painted from this bible story they risked their lives to help women who had no rights. They stood up for babies that had no rights. With the gentle way of a woman a Jewish remnant was preserved in that dark moment of history.

   The story goes on to talk about a baby that was born a few years later named Moses. He would deliver his people out of the bondage of Egypt. He was born after Pharaoh decreed all baby boys would die at the hands of the soldiers. Put in a basket he floated to the providential arms of the Pharaoh’s sister. His life was spared. 

     He would later meet and team up with his older brother who was born during the time of the two protecting midwives. His name was Aaron. He was the first of the line of priests that would arise in the Israelite nation as they made their way out of Egypt.  

    I still remember the name of the midwife who delivered my two daughters. Her name was Sandy. Under her care, I felt relaxed and confident that I could go through the delivery process again. She had a way of helping me feel prepared without freaking me out.

    As I remember her I think of the need each woman has for a female friend.  Someone that has experienced the things that she has, and also some experiences she hasn’t. Someone who will let her cry, but will also cheer her up. Someone who will believe for the best. 

    The following two deliveries were light years better than my first because of the gentle knowledgeable ways of the midwife. I also think my life has gotten easier as I have walked through life with special female friends that keep me laughing, give advice, and lend a listening ear.

   Women are life givers and as such, we need to have other women in our lives to nurture and encourage. I know at times in my own story it has been hard to nurture others because of the emotional state I found myself in. I am thankful in such times I had a friend to help me get out of the pits of despair. At other times I was the one lending a hand.

     As I look back I realize that my life has been rich with the nurture and influence of other women. Even though Eve made it hard for women in childbirth according to Genesis, I am thankful that women have been redeeming our role ever since.