Hello to you Ricardo....
I have taken the liberty of forwarding your posting
on to a coleague of mine and will ask that he table it at the next meeting of
RANZCOG (Royal Australia and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and
Gynaecologists). You are right - the humanisation of birth IS a global
issue, and it is essential that where change is happening, and where efforts
are being made to honour and respect women in birth (or women as people)
that as many people know about it as possible.
Sometimes when my heart is heavy about the things
we are witness to every day in birth, I think about the situation in other
countries where the plight is much worse for women generally in their lives,
birth being such an important part, and this helps to put things into
perspective.
There is so much to be done - the technocratic
wheel is in full spin and spinning furiously, and it will take a mammoth effort
on many people's part to slow the spin, even just a little. But the speed of the
wheel slows in many places, as people such as yourself and many others, work to
keep birth as it should be, alive and well, insisting that women
should be treated, as you so beautifully express, 'with caress and
gentleness'.
As a dear friend and colleague of mine says
"It matters how babies come into this world" and in my midwifery experience
(I am old, like yourself! Even older!!) of almost 20 years, every birth I
accompany a woman on shows me afresh how much it does matter, and how
respectful of birth we must be - not only for women, but for ourselves as
those who are the privileged ones to be with women at this time (because each
birth contibutes to, and helps shape our individual philosophy of
birth, and thus, how we are when we are with all of the subsequent women we care
for), but also for the future of humankind. The "kind" on the end of human
seems ironic at times, does it not?
Regards, Lynne
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, September 06, 2002 4:29
AM
Subject: [ozmidwifery] Hello - Brasil
here...
Hello everybody:
My name is Ricardo Herbert Jones
I am an obstetrician from Brasil, and had the
pleasure of meeting Andrea Robertson this year in a Congress about
Humanization of Childbirth in São Paulo, Brasil.
As an obstetrician I would like to share
experiences with midwives and doulas all around the world, because I think
that humanization of birth is an issue that has to do with every single person
in this planet. Even thou only women deliver babies (yet - who knows where the
tecnocratic paradygm will takes us?) all of us were once born, and lived
during a limited time in a woman´s womb. Were we rescued from there by doctors
and eletronic devices or were we cherished by mom´s tender body till we
entered this world? These are different ways of looking to the same event. As
I grew old (I am 43 now, and work with births from 20 years) I learned that
women shall be treated with caress and gentleness. Birth in our
tecnocratic society is seen as a mechanic phenomenon, and doctors usually see
their patients as objects, and not as persons and subjects. That´s a terrible
thing, because it´s a human´s right problem.
I am one of the leaders of Rehuna
(Humanization of Childbirth Network - Brasil) and our struggle now is to
empower women in their decisions about chilbirth and force the government area
to humanize the assistance to women in the public hospitals. The first step is
a doula project, called "Friends in Light", to graduate doulas and doula
trainners in Rio de Janeiro.
Ok, as u can see my english is not quite well,
and I love to talk too much...
Hope I can get good advices from you
all.
Ricardo Herbert Jones
Ob/Gyn and Homeopath
Porto Alegre - Brasil
__________________________________________________________________ Ricardo
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