Every One Has a Story

One of the best things about my job is the people I get to meet.  Last week I got to talk with someone who does radio carbon dating and had been involved in dating the Shroud of Turin.  I've met folks who were part of the Hubbell project and the Mars rover and who work on missile systems.  One skill I have attained from those many experiences is engineer recognition and no, it's not the pocket protector, they think in a way that is to me, very different.

I've also met minor celebrities and sports figures.  Interestingly enough, they aren't that interesting.  At least not to me.

Many of our clients are well-traveled, sometimes by choice, sometimes for survival.  Tucson has become home to many refugees and I have learned of cultures that I was unaware even existed. I had no idea of the plight of Karen refugees,  nor what was going on in Eritrea and Somalia.  The story of the Lost Boys of the Sudan became more than a sensational TV soundbite as many of them settled in Tucson.

Then there are our travelers from just south of our border, most are here trying to eke out a living doing work which is much harder than what I do, in much worse conditions, for much less money. 

I have learned that if I am willing to listen, everyone has a story.  In my 30+ years of attending births and taking care of new families, I have on a few occasions had bad experiences with people.  But only a few.  Birth is a time of vulnerability filled with stress and high emotion, not all of which is good.  But I can truly say that the positive experiences far outweigh the negative.  I have learned of places to which I might never travel, unimaginable strife and the cruelty humans can inflict on one another.  But I have also learned about hope and the strength of the human spirit.

I have been changed by each story, each situation, each birth.  I've learned that despite place of origin, or DNA, or language or religion, at the moment of birth, we have more similarities than differences.
 

Bringing a child into the world is the greatest act of hope there is.

                                                                                                Louise Hart

How Have I Missed This?

 Tucson Birth & Women's Health Center

I found this on the Austin Area Birth Center site  It is a beautiful birth center and Austin is very lucky to have it.  Having been immersed in birth all these years, I'm amazed that I have never heard this poem before.  I received a wonderful, touching note from a couple whose birth I was fortunate enough to attend and it again reinforced that I am so lucky to be able to do what I do.  And this poem says it all.

A Poem: Being Born is Important

Being Born Is Important

Being born is important
You who have stood at the bedposts
and seen a mother on her high harvest day,
the day of the most golden of harvest moons for her.

You who have seen the new wet child
dried behind the ears,
swaddled in soft fresh garments,
pursing its lips and sending a groping mouth
toward the nipples where white milk is ready~

You who have seen this love’s payday
of wild toil and sweet agonizing~

You know being born is important.
You know nothing else was ever so important to you.
You understand the payday of love is so old,
So involved, so traced with the circles of the moon,
So cunning with the secrets of the salts of the blood~
It must be older than the moon, older than the salt.

~Carl Sandburg

Straw, Earth, Mud, Plaster, Birth

It's so interesting to me that many of the same people who think government should stay out of their lives believe government should have a bigger role in the lives of others (The Lives of Others, a very good movie, by the way). Like say, legislating where we can give birth and who can attend that birth. And, they don't even choose the side with the best outcomes. Very odd, don't you think?

This is not to be a political rant but we are in danger of losing a very basic right and it makes me happy when I see things like this: Marshall University Nurse Midwifery Emphasis added to MSN Program. I come from that neck of the woods and this is a boon to the area. Hopefully many will stay and serve the population.