Lisa Mooney posted the following quote from Dr. Christiane Northrup; the bold-face and underlining for emphasis are mine.
I realize that Northrup may have been paraphrased in Lisa Mooney's post, and I do not in any way wish to attack either one of them. I am simply sharing my reaction with the list.
:
(on sensing she was violating the woman's space by exerting finger pressure on her posterior vaginal wall during second stage labor, Northrup shifted tactics)
'...and instead put the pt in a comfortable position and did some guided imagery work with her. Telling her to go down deep inside herself , find her baby and tell him that everything is ok. She then says, "Many of us women have not owned all the parts of our bodies, We have not allowed ourselves to feel our vaginas and perineums. They have seemed separate and not within our control. They have negative connotations, dirty or pornographic. But the truth is they are ours. They belong to us like our lips, our hands our minds. This part of your body is yours and you can reclaim it. Right now take it back as the sensual, enjoyable part of you that it is. Since it is yours you are totally in control. You can allow your baby to move through this part of you as fast or as slowly as you like. It does not have to hurt you but you will feel very strong signals from this part of your body that you are not used to feeling. Allow those feelings and celebrate them as the return of a long lost friend" '
Apropos empowerment: (and I truly do find much of Northrup's writing on birth to be challenging, stimulating and insightful-- I like it!)... I felt very uncomfortable when I read about this exercise. Who holds the power here? Who sets the terms, calls the shots, GIVES THE ORDERS? (not shouting, just writing in capitals). The goal is admirable, but I wonder if the means are truly well suited to the stated goal. There are women who experience symptoms post partum which resemble very closely the symptoms common to survivors of sexual assault, and it is not always because they have recalled a previously suppressed assault, but because their care has been indistinguishable from such an assault. Perhaps my discomfort comes from recognition-- this may be how I, too, "help" women, by using the authority which comes with my title and hospital uniform, to command women to believe that they can breastfeed, or give birth. For that opportunity for reflection, I suppose I am grateful that this was posted. I will be even more wary of violating a woman's space, be it physical, mental or emotional.
Rachel Myr
empowerment freak of the obsessive persuasion
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