Inspired!

Inspired. This is the feeling I have come away with after each presentation made as part of the Virtual International Day of the Midwife (May 5^th) online conference. I listened in to some of the discussions on the day and am catching up with the other now at http://www.internationaldayofthemidwife.wikispaces.com. Midwifes who I look up to and admire were talking there, it was wonderful to hear them speak so passionately about their lives work.

I was inspired to write this post today (and hopefully will be much more actively writing from now on!) after listening to Joy Johnston (http://www.aitex.com.au/joy.htm) talk about how important it is for midwives to blog. By blogging we are reaching our thoughts and words out into the world, we will never make a difference staying silent! So I hope to keep up to date on this blog now, even if some of the posts are short.

I was inspired by Lisa Barrett (http://www.homebirth.net.au/) and Mary Sidebotham and all the other participants at both presentations to speak out about midwifery, get the word out about how birth is normal and should be trusted and treated as such! One quote that someone brought up that really hit home with me was “Speak your truth-even if your voice shakes”. I personally find it difficult to voice my opinion and speak up when I have something important to say. Now I will be speaking my truth even though I know my voice will, at the least, shake!

I was inspired and reminded by Gloria Lemay (http://www.glorialemay.com/blog/index.php) to trust women’s bodies.  She spoke about recognising the signs of progression in the woman’s body in labour and the importance of observation, not interference, in labour and birth. Gloria discussed how the assumptions of midwives are always being challenged and being fooled by women’s bodies, I took from this that a midwife must always be learning from every experience and never take anything for granted.

I feel so proud to be a part of this group of wonderful women, birth activists, midwives, student midwives and you. You should feel proud too, we are a very special collection of people!

Now, I really encourage you to go listen to some (or all perhaps) of the recordings and feel inspired too. I believe that they will soon be turned into MP3 files so we can download them to our iPods, I know I will be grabbing them as soon as they are there so I will have the inspiration of many at my fingertips!