Total Healing requires attention to the Body, Mind, Spirit, Family, Community & Environment

by Jacqueline George

10/31/2023

Midwifery is recognizing the mother as a complete and complex being. It is understanding the interconnectedness of each of her parts - physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, sexual - and the way any disruption in the delicate balance of these layers can manifest itself in her labor. Midwifery is holding space and providing comfort as she navigates obstacles both visible and invisible, knowing that what first appears as dysfunction may actually be an opportunity to help foster healing. Midwifery is hands, but even more it is eyes, ears, presence, and heart.

“Midwives who understand that the uterus is not a mechanism but a responsive part of the whole will see such common medical diagnoses of dysfunction such as “incompetent cervix,” “post-dates pregnancy,” “failure to progress,” “uterine atony” as completely missing the point. They will hug and cry with the mother whose labor stops at eight centimeters, and offer her a pillow to pound and permission to scream as loudly as she wants to, for they know the baby’s descent into her vagina may be triggering bodily memories of sexual abuse. They will ask the woman who loses her urge to push if she is afraid to let this baby be born.” - Anne Frye, Holistic Midwifery Vol. 1