I was so happy to see Louise Denhez mention the book Spiritual Midwifery, as
having been influential to her.  I was recently privileged to meet Ina Mae
Gaskin, and it was such a thrill.  I read her book during each of my
pregnancies, and she was a huge influence on me with her attitude that birth
was powerful, exciting, and celebratory. When I compared the birth stories
in Spiritual Midwifery with what I actually experienced in my sole hospital
birth, Ina Mae was a key factor in my decision to try home birth.  When our
health insurance refused to pay for midwives, I almost abandoned the idea,
but had the good fortune to attend a lecture by Michel Odent.  He made the
point that birth was an event which only happens a few times in the lives of
a woman, and that women should go to any lenghts to insure it happens the
way THEY want it to be.  How empowering!  I was inspired to get a night job
so my husband could care for our daughter while I earned the extra money to
pay for my midwives.  I did this for the births of my second and third
child, and those births were peak events in my life.  My third spiritual
mentor was Niles Newton, whom I was also privileged to meet and spend some
time with.  Her example  taught me that old women could be curious, vital,
and important. My own work has always been fueled by her early insight that
the basic emotion underlying breastfeeding is joy.

So many of the women I care for come out of the birth experience looking as
if they are suffering post-traumatic stress syndrome.  Instead of emerging
from the experience with a joyous understanding of their own personal
generative power, they are ashamed at their loss of control, and angry over
having been treated insensitively.   They are humiliated by having
consenting to allow a Machine to snatch their babies away from them.  Until
there is more committment to examine birthing practices and environments, we
can expect to see poor committment to breastfeeding by these traumatized women.

Barbara

Barbara Wilson-Clay, BS, IBCLC
Private Practice, Austin, Texas
Owner, Lactnews On-Line Conference Page
http://moontower.com/bwc/lactnews.html