In all cultures, the midwife's place is on the threshold of life, where intense human emotions, fear, hope, longing, triumph, and incredible physical power-enable a new human being to emerge. Her vocation is unique.
Interpretation
The midwife plays a crucial role at the critical moment of birth, embodying the emotional and physical challenges of this transformative experience.
This quote by Sheila Kitzinger highlights the significant position of midwives in the birthing process, emphasizing their presence at a pivotal moment of life. It reflects the deep emotional and physical dynamics involved in childbirth, portraying midwives as essential guides who facilitate the powerful transition of bringing new life into the world. Their vocation encompasses not just technical skill but also an understanding of the profound feelings experienced by both the birthing individual and the new life emerging.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a childbirth education class to highlight the importance of midwifery.
Fathers' sharing in the birth experience can be a stimulus for men's freedom to nurture, and a sign of changing relationships between men and women. In the same way, women's freedom to give birth at home is a political decision, an assertion of determination to reclaim the experience of birth. Birth at home is about changing society.
In achieving the depersonalization of childbirth and at the same time solving the problem of pain, our society may have lost more than it has gained. We are left with the physical husk; the transcending significance has been drained away.
Gemma, you see how it is. They've planned our entire lives, from what we shall wear to whom we shall marry and where we shall live. It's one lump of sugar in your tea whether you like it or not and you'd best smile even if you're dying deep inside. We're like pretty horses, and just as on horses, they mean to put blinders on us so we can't look left or right but only straight ahead where they would lead. Please, please, please, Gemma, let's not die inside before we have to.
Life is now. There was never a time_x000D_ _x000D_ when your life was not now, nor will there ever be.
I am grown by sympathy a little eager and sentimental, but leave me alone, and I should relish every hour and what it brought me, the pot-luck of the day, as heartily as the oldest gossip in the bar-room.
There's a scary moment when you realise you're no longer the youngest person in the room. Especially if you've been a successful young person. That's followed, of course, by the realisation that you're actually the oldest person in the room.
Have you ever walked along a shoreline, only to have your footprints washed away? That's what Alzheimer's is like. The waves erase the marks we leave behind, all the sand castles. Some days are better than others.
Autumn is really the best of the seasons; and I'm not sure that old age isn't the best part of life.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.