Baby Magic Season Two: The Birth Conspiracy

 

I birthed my new podcast on August 21, 2020 ... commemorating my 64th journey around the sun. A couple of weeks ago Season One came to an end with Episode 8, where I chatted with a volunteer doula from Montreal Birth Companions, the greatest, most radical volunteer doula organization ever that met its untimely end in 2016. 

Just last week, a couple of lovely colleagues and friends, Sylvia Otvos and Jenny Bee,  invited me to chat with them on their show aptly titled Wombs with a View (maternal musings with Jenny and Sylvia). They wanted to ask me about my views on hospital birth, freebirthing, home birth and why women should or shouldn't give birth in the hospital.

The Birth Conspiracy is the title of my book. It's also the title of Episode One of Baby Magic, Season 2. Listen up and you will hear what the conspiracy is all about!

So, should women give birth in a hospital? Actually, I believe that hospitals should be reserved for sick people. During pregnancy, birth and postpartum, of courses, sickness happens. But pregnancy and labor are not sicknesses and do not belong in the hospital. 

Where do they belong? Certainly not in any space at all where the woman does not feel safe, whether that is a hospital where overworked and overtired staff members just want to get the birth over with in the least amount of time, and preferably in the quietest manner possible. And neither all by herself at home, where she has decided to give birth because she's scared of going to the hospital and wants a midwife but can't find one. Nor in a birthing centre, where the midwives are so controlled by government regulations that they regularly send healthy labouring mothers to the hospital to give birth where they didn't want to in the first place.

Birthing women, as the creators of new life, belong wherever they damn well please. We should be working hard to provide safe, respectful, sacred care for mothers and babies everywhere. Home, hospital, center; all of these places are appropriate for birth. It's what we fill the spaces with that is so much more important than what the space is. Hospital birthing rooms should be safe, respectful, and woman-centered. Informed consent means that a woman is explained what her choices are, objectively and truthfully, and then she makes her choice, and then that choice is respected. Sacred care means that the whole of a birthing experience is respected: the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health of the mother and baby are held in the highest regard by the care providers.

Home birth spaces should have that same access to safe birth practices: a midwife shouldn't have to lie to the hospital staff if the birthing mother needs medical care. Access to midwifery care should be universal, and regulations surrounding midwifery care should be created by midwives, for midwives. 

Some women choose to give birth completely on their own, or with their partners and other children. This is a sovereign choice and should be respected as such. But a woman should only make the choice to "freebirth" or give birth "unassisted" if it is a positive choice, that is, it is a choice FOR freebirth and not AGAINST her other limited options. 

Of course, I'm not imagining that it's going to be easy to change our broken maternity care system. It's not. When women are birthing with our sovereign power, in our spaces, with our sisters, and feeling the energy of creation moving through us, the world will tilt on its axis and life on earth will change. Don't imagine any different. When we birth standing up, squatting, lying down, crawling, surrounded by our sisters in loving-kindess, a new life will emerge. 

It's time, sisters, to say out loud what you want. Do you want to go to the hospital during the times of Covid and bring your doula and your partner? Let's find a way! Do you want to birth your twins at home? Let's find a way! Have a VBAC at home? Let's find a way NOW!

A Crack in the System

A couple of years ago, when I was deeply into my work at my cafe, and running longer and longer distances, I told my husband at some point "Yeh, The Man won." I meant that crippling internal conflicts had brought me to a decision to abandon my volunteer doula organization; that the arrest and conviction of unregistered midwives in Canada and around the world meant that women were left with less and less choices; and that my simmering suspicions about the nature of feminism were possibly true. 

So, I took pleasure in my cafe. I ran faster and had a load of fun doing races. I made new friends. I ignored the birth world, and only answered a call if one of "my" students had a question about a birth or a pregnant client of theirs. Occasionally I would check in with midwife friends around the world, just to check in. I was happy giving it all up. I put my doula bag away and forgot about my plans to go back to Greece to attend women in the camps there.

Then that crazy virus hit and I spent two month at home, with my family (husband, two sons, nephew). I made myself a small cocoon, and I crawled into it and meditated, thought, wrote and pondered. And then women started calling me. Women who had planned to give birth at home but whose midwives were forbidden to attend. Women who planned to give birth at the hospital but their doula were forbidden to attend. I gave advice, gave comfort, affirmed choices, made suggestions. 

I met with a few women who were planning to give birth in their own homes, without a midwife in attendance. I spoke to them after their births and got the idea I would interview them for an article or a podcast episode. Then I looked at the footage and I realized - you women are amazing by the way! - that I have some beautiful, inspiring footage. And then I realized, yes well, women experience less-than-optimum births and they're also worth interviewing....

So, now I have interviewed about thirty women, I have so much beauty on my Google drive and so many words of wisdom... so I'm making a documentary to celebrate our strength, tell our stories and let the world know that our care of the birthing woman needs change and needs it NOW!

There is a crack in our maternity care "system" and women are falling in. Luckily, the Covid crisis is a chance for us all to have a little time to check in with our reality and make some changes. Fast. 

Some questions to ponder:

• Why are women expected to "reach for the top" in their professions and then called "too old" when they decide to bear children?
• Why are women expected to go to the hospital to give birth? As we now know, hospitals are where sick people go. Pregnancy is not an illness.
• Why are women threatened with the death or morbidity of their babies, while they are in labour?
• Why are there so few midwives in Canada?
• Why are doulas so expensive? Is a birth companion a luxury?
• Why do women feel ashamed for their birth experiences?

And some mantras to reflect on:

• Nature is not gentle, it is powerful and untameable.
• Heal birth, heal earth.
• Powerful women can change the world.
• Just a reminder, when a woman gives birth, she is BIRTHING A NEW HUMAN! 

So, I have my work cut out for me, and I am feeling good.

If any one of you wants to participate in any way, let me know: do you want your voice to be heard? Do you want to be involved in production? Do you have an idea you want to tell me about? 

I'm listening!

Level One Doula Class Fall 2013

Doula classes are starting again in September. This program has been a great success! The doulas that completed Level One in May, 2013 have had a very busy summer attending births as volunteers with Montreal Birth Companions (always working with a partner, as a shadow and then as a co-doula).

Level One will start again on September 9, 2013. Registration is moving along, so if you are interested please get in touch with me for a registration form. See below for a description of the course.

Level Two is scheduled to start at the end of November, 2013.

Birth Companions Doula Course

Level One Description

Fall 2013

Introduction

This course is the first of three levels of the Birth Companions doula program. It includes 24 hours of class time.

Classes will be held every Monday evening starting on September 9, 2013, for eight weeks.

When you have completed this level, you will be eligible to accompany clients from the Montreal Birth Companions volunteer doula program, under my mentorship and with a partner doula. During the shadowing process, you will proceed to Level Two, after which you will be able to work as a private practice doula.

The course will integrate theory and practice. Shadowing and mentoring may take place throughout.

The only prerequisite is enthusiasm and availability.

Materials

Bring your own experiences, a notebook, your hands and an open heart. We will utilize The Birth Conspiracy as our main reference. The book will be available on or before the first class.

Requirements

To fulfill requirements for Level One, you need to attend all of the classes, if possible. I may ask you to present or prepare assignments, but these will be done within class time. If you are interested in doing an independent project, please speak to me and I will be available for mentorship.

Cost

We are pricing this course to be accessible for as many women as possible. The cost for Level One is $400.00. I do not turn anyone away so please contact me about a financial plan.

E-book

E-book!!!

We finally jumped into the electronic age and decided to make an e-book of The Birth Conspiracy available....for all you birth keepers out there who want a light, easy-to-carry version, or for those of you who travel... or for any of you who prefer electronic copies...(I like paper books myself...)

Here it is! You can buy it now for $12 Cdn. Just click on the button below and it will take you straight to the Paypal page where you pay, then you will be directed to the download.

Buy Now

Buy the Book!

Support Canadian publishers!

Buy The Birth Conspiracy directly  from the publisher, at Curioso Books. You can also log onto Amazon and rate the book.

Book Launch Tomorrow

It's finally here. My book is written, illustrated, edited, proofed, and printed. It is ready to go, and tomorrow night we will be celebrating.
I hope all of you in Montreal will be able to come and celebrate with us. The launch will take place at 6767 Cote des Neiges, from 7 to 10 pm, and of course children and babies are welcome.

In the meantime, life goes on. I am waiting on a lady who is going to call me any minute now to accompany her during her labor and birth. I have another lady due in a week or so, and I am hoping that baby doesn't decide to arrive tomorrow night.

My mind and dreams are now full of my next book, so watch this space....

And I went to visit my father last week and did the doula in the geriatric ward where he was staying. The doula approach, how we utilize our skills, how we "do the doula", is the same whether we are attending a woman in labor, an old man in hospital, or a teenager having a meltdown. We wait, watch, listen, sympathize, fetch ice, carry water, sit still, put hands on, keep hands off, speak when spoken to, make eye contact.

A hearty thank you and much gratitude to all of those who have allowed me to be present at their births, and to all of the doulas out there who continue to do this challenging work.

Seven Billion!!

I heard today, as many of us did, that the world's population is estimated to have reached 7 billion people!

Let's not speak of low resources, climate change, and gloom and doom, but let's celebrate this 7 billionth baby's birth with a cheer and a toast, to good health, happiness, and longevity for us humans. I'm sure we can find a way to make it all work.

More interesting to me is the likely fact that this baby was probably born at home, with the attendance of a traditionally trained midwife. I do not advocate going back in time to the days when women died in childbirth, but I do believe that home is the best place to conceive and the best place to give birth. I offer a vision of birthing the future from my book:

My vision is one of most women giving birth at home, with full medical back-up available to them if needed. Midwives would provide prenatal care and accompany the laboring women through labor and birth. They would assist with the postpartum period and help the new mother adjust to life with a new baby. If there were problems, the midwives would refer the woman to a doctor, who may in turn refer her to a specialist, an obstetrician. Full emergency support would be in place for the rare occasion that it is needed, so that the midwife would know that she is covered in the case of an emergency. 

The women who chose to give birth in the hospital, in my dream world, would be there because of clear medical or social need. The hospital birthing centers would provide specialized medical care for the few women who need it. Occasionally, there would be a woman who needs the extra emotional support of a doula, but the doula would be well-integrated into the hospital system and would be on call in these situations. Sometimes a woman would want to give birth away from home, and she could go to an independent birthing center which, again, would be fully supported in case of a medical emergency. 

I do not believe that this vision is so far off in the future, or that it is out of our reach. For now, however, our reality is that most women in the developed world are giving birth in hospitals, and many of these hospitals have different philosophies about birth than many of the patients they are there to serve. In Canada, the philosophy of any hospital must be to provide the best care for the greatest number of people. This may translate into an epidural for every woman, especially if there are not enough nurses to support each woman individually. In the USA, hospitals are run as profit-making enterprises, so the word philosophy may not apply. We do know, however, that cesarean section rates are skyrocketing, and that the general consensus is that a national rate of about 15% may be optimum. Personally, I believe that the rate for emergency cesarean sections can be held to 5% without putting the mothers or babies at risk.

The doula is the interface between the birthing community and the medical establishment. This puts us in a difficult position. I have spoken to  women who thought that I would leave them to give birth alone if they decided to take an epidural (this is beyond cruel). I have been yelled at by a physician who thought I had removed an intravenous drip (the nurse hadn’t had time to put it in). I have been looked upon as a knight in shining armor (I don’t even like horseback riding) by women who had not yet understood that the birth work is done by the birthing woman.

     I have also been thanked and cherished by hundreds of women who have been happy to have me by their side as they go through the experience of giving birth. My task, our task as doulas, and in a bigger sense, our task as human beings in the 21^st century, is to “humanize” birth. To me, that means affirming that all of us are different, and that we all have needs, desires, and histories that cannot and should not be judged. My job as a doula is to create a space in which a woman can reclaim her knowledge of birth and give birth according to her own birthright.

Book Launch!!

Conspiracy

Conspiracies abound: are we are being controlled  by giant lizards? No, most of us would agree that we are not. Is the exhaust from planes flying above the Italian skies affecting the Italians, making them doll-like and unable to oust Berlusconi? A surprising number of seemingly rational people I have met actually believe this. Did man reach the moon? What evil was behind 9/11? Is Big Pharma out to drug us all, whilst stealing our life savings?

Of course not! We are rational, sensible human beings. Then why do we believe that the simplest task needs a multitude of experts? From conception to birth to early childhood education and beyond, we are confused and abused by lowly-qualified experts telling us which way is the right way.

The Birth Conspiracy is this: an understanding, created by all of us, that we cannot function without experts. We cannot give birth without birth experts. We cannot labor without assistance, without classes and checklists. We cannot make our own decisions, or accept consequences for our own actions. It is a way we can avoid responsibility for our lives. Those of us who are experts want and need to control the process. It is very hard to sit on your hands and wait while a woman labors. It is much easier to interfere, to preach, to suggest, and to control.

The doula sits uncomfortably on something between a fencepost and a pillar here, protecting the birthing woman from well-meaning experts who do not understand the truth about birth. She is in great danger of becoming an expert herself, and there is only one way for her to prevent this from happening. She should gain as much knowledge as she can about the birth process and how it unfolds in different environments. She should take this knowledge with her to every birth, to every meeting, to every workshop. With all of her knowledge and experience, she needs to remember only one golden rule, that is, that the woman she is accompanying is going through HER experience. The doula can hold her hand, literally or figuratively, but she needn't teach, judge, or convince. Then she is overstepping the bounds of the Birth Companion and becoming just another expert.

Book!

My book is actually in print!
Only review copies are available now, so if you are a journalist and would like to review please contact me.
It looks good, and reads beautifully...the culmination of many months of work.

Birth Conspiracy?

I remember seeing a medical student who was attending his first birth. It was a normal, natural hospital birth. The woman was on the bed, her husband was by her side, I was next to him, there was an intern helping with the delivery, a nurse, the physician in charge, and a young medical student. The baby came out, everyone was happy, the new parents were exhilarated and crying, and then the medical student exclaimed loudly: “Look! Look! Look at its little toes! Look! They’re like real toes. They’re just like real toes!”
The attending physician looked at him and whispered: “Philip, get a grip!”, but I was hoping that that simple amazement and wonder would stay with him throughout his career.
For some people, this story may be full of problems and issues. What do I mean by a “normal, natural hospital birth”? Can a woman have a natural birth in a hospital? I remember hearing from an obstetrician that among some women in our city a “natural” birth was when you didn’t wear much makeup when you gave birth. What is a normal birth? If a hospital has a 90% epidural rate, does that mean getting an epidural is normal?
And certainly, we can’t have trained professionals going gaga over newborn’s toes, can we?

We are living in an age when we are terribly concerned with our health, yet it is an age when human life expectancy is at its highest. We worry and fret endlessly about our children, but have difficulty finding time to spend with them. We are living a life that is far from nature, yet we yearn for the “natural” and the “green”. We are so divorced from our own bodies that a surprising number of pregnant women do not know where their cervix is or how a baby is supposed to come out.
In our world, human life has become so complicated that every simple activity has a huge structure built up around it. This structure is built upon a foundation of information supplied by an army of experts. Simple processes such as eating, healing, making love, giving birth, breastfeeding, caring for children, have all become complicated and institutionalized. When a woman decides she wants to have a child, one of the first things she will encounter is the structure we have built up around birth. She will be met with a mountain of information and much of it will be conflicting.
In the birth world everyone wants to have a little piece of the birth experience. The birth practitioner wants a piece of even the most physical and elemental. Here is an example: It is often very tempting to do a vaginal exam. Why? We want to know what’s going on; if the baby is moving down, if the cervix is opening, where the baby’s head is positioned. What most practitioners will not admit is that this intimate physical connection with a woman is important to them: it is an amazing thing, to feel a baby’s head coming down the birth canal! But how often is it really necessary? Does the laboring woman actually want to have so many exams? How many vaginal exams are done for the sake of the birthing woman, and how many are done for the attendant?
The birth practitioner, or any birth “expert”, also wants a little piece of the bigger picture: we want the woman to have a natural birth, with no epidural and no interventions. Or perhaps we want her to have an epidural so that she can be more comfortable. Or we are convinced that surgery will be less risky. Either way, we want to convince her that we know best. In fact, we do know best: we are more educated, we have seen more births, we have seen more pregnant women and we know what to do.
Or do we?
The Birth Conspiracy is this: It is an understanding, created by all of us, that we cannot function without experts. We cannot give birth without birth experts. We cannot labor without assistance, without classes and checklists. We cannot make our own decisions, or accept consequences for our own actions. It is a way we can avoid responsibility for our lives. Those of us who are experts want and need to control the process. It is very hard to sit on your hands and wait while a woman labors. It is much easier to interfere, to preach, to suggest, and to control.

Interested? You can order your copy of The Birth Conspiracy soon - watch this space!

The Writer's Life

Writing this book was the easy part - it was very satisfying to sit day after day and work on my knowledge and my words. I carefully filtered fact from fiction, and decanted my prose from other bits and pieces I had picked up along the way. I researched and searched, and came up with sometimes surprising conclusions. At times I was discouraged, when I felt the writing would never be done, then I would start a new chapter and feel renewed.

When I started writing, I was going through difficult changes in my life and writing the book was a way of anchoring myself. Then I spent a summer in Italy, at my safe summer hideout.

Every morning I would see to lunch and then settle in the kitchen, and write. When I looked up I could see "my" mountains. I could hear my family and volunteers building, or working down in the meadow, reclaiming it from forty years of neglect.

The book grew. Back in the wintry city, our new house provided me with a wood stove to feed, and endless cups of tea. I sit at the kitchen table, a window behind me and a window in front, and I write.

Of course, there were births to go to, volunteer organizations to run, and family to feed. But when I look back on that winter, I remember with pleasure my fingers moving over the keyboard, and my mind searching for the right word and the most accurate description

Writing kept me going through my winter blues, through the ups and downs of family life, and into the spring. Tickets were bought again for the summer and I found myself looking at my mountains again, with an almost completed manuscript on the screen.

But that summer, my laptop died, and no intensive care was available in the small neighboring town. I focused on other things and took a break from writing. In the fall, thanks to a friendly geek, I retrieved everything and started working again - and two years after I started, I had a finished book! I thought that was it! My work was over!

When you make a baby, your work is far from over when the child is born. Now I am raising the child - preparing it to send it out into the world. I hope it can stand on its own. I will accompany it, of course. I will let everyone know that I am responsible for any errors, omissions, miscalculations. Essentially, though, it will be independent of me. It will (hopefully!) be read by people who don't know or care who I am - they are not reading a book so that they can be my friend.

To help send it on its way, I have sent out my book to a few reviewers "in the field". I am wondering if anyone else is interested in giving it a look-over and providing me with comment and blurbs.

The Final Push!!!

I am feeling like I am almost there - the baby will be born soon - but worried about the shoulders.
My book is going to be on the shelves, speaking for itself, and I am proud but anxious. The new mother feels just that. For nine months or more, she has lived with another person inside her body, creating the bones, muscles and nerves with her own body. But the baby has its own, what? Some call it a soul, others an independent central nervous system.
Whatever it is, when the baby is born, he is definitely separated from the womb, even if his mother has a Lotus Birth, where the placenta is kept attached to the baby until it organically falls off.
And when that happens, the new mother feels proud, happy, and satisfied, but also anxious, worried, and not a little nervous - how will this tiny creature make his way in the world?
So, what this space! The Birth Conspiracy will be out soon!

Old Scars

The cesarean section epidemic has been growing in intensity and numbers since the 1970's, in most of the western world, and increasingly in China, India, and South America.

It is a given in most conservative medical circles that the scarred uterus is more fragile during subsequent pregnancies and may rupture during labor. While I do not believe a healthy, though scarred, uterus will rupture without provocation, I have witnessed severe psychological and emotional scars from unnecessary surgery. The World Health Organization suggested in 1985 that a 15% cesarean rate would be optimal. I believe that in countries where mothers and babies and generally healthy (this may exclude the U.S. because of high obesity rates), an optimum emergency c-section rate would be under 5%.

All sorts of shocks and aftershocks have been linked to cesarean sections. Failure to bond, failure to thrive, autism, asthma, breastfeeding problems, PTSD, ADHD, you name it, unnecessary surgery has been implicated.

But what about the effects on a woman as a woman? What about the women who have been having this surgery over the past thirty years? The young ones may mistakenly believe that it is easier on the body for the baby to be extracted surgically; that the low transverse scar just above the pubic bone will heal and remain an almost-invisible thin white line; that urinary and fecal incontinence will be miraculously avoided; that their vaginal muscles will be tight and virginal forever. The middle-aged ones, the menopausal ones, the ladies who have had possibly multiple cesareans, based on the old "once a cesarean, always a cesarean" dictate of the 70's and 80's; these women represent the tip of the cesarean iceberg and their numbers are growing as this rate increases.

Much has been said, especially by men, about the effects of menopause on a woman's emotional state. The old stale jokes abound. But the fact is, that many women start to feel anxious and disoriented about their new status as non-reproductive beings.

I didn't. I have five sons and I am very happy about my contribution to the ongoing human race but I was content to let menstruation go. I do feel ambivalence about growing older - after all, who wants to die? As we age, we do march slowly but surely towards the next big chapter.

So, with the loss of our reproductive capabilities, as we get used to our bodies and ourselves during this phase of life, it is difficult to have to watch the little white bikini line grow into a larger, lumpier line where no matter how many times we march off to the gym, the pleasant softness of middle age insists on bulging unpleasantly underneath and over the top, as if a tight elastic were stretched just above the pubic bone. And it hurts - it still hurts - even after twenty, thirty and forty years.

Birth and Fear

As I listen with exhilaration and with horror to the events that are happening in Egypt, I am reminded of what takes place so often in our hospitals when women give birth.
When I suggest that the masses in Tahrir Square may be a new force - a mass of people dedicated to peace and prosperity, some people look at me with pity, like
I am a naive fool. Who would think that people are generally good and peaceful creatures? Who would think that a woman could give birth to a huge baby without help?
Whoever is interfering in this generally peaceful process is working from a place of fear. Fear is always real, but it does not need to have the power we give to it. Birth can be frightening as well, but we do not have to act out of fear.
A few years ago, I was called to the hospital to accompany a lady who had already birthed a few babies naturally, so I wondered why she needed me there. It turned out that her family doc had bumped her up to OB care because of the suspected size of the baby - huge!
The woman was a tall, statuesque lady but not heavy. Her husband was also well over six feet. She was young and in good health.I will call her Helen. She labored for a while on her own and then called me to the hospital. When I arrived she was in good labor and progressing well. The OB on call was in and out of the room, feeling Helen's abdomen and shaking her head. They did an ultrasound which did show a large and active baby.
After about an hour, the Obstetrics resident came into the room and sat on the bed to chat. He suggested to Helen that the best route of delivery would be a Cesarian section. Helen laughed at his suggestion but became serious when he implied that the baby could die if she tried to give birth vaginally.
I decided to join in the conversation and I asked the resident, "What is the biggest baby you have ever seen delivered vaginally?"
"Around 8 1/2 pounds" was the answer.
He continued to say that if we just "let things go", we don't know what could happen - it was very frightening - we just don't know. I suggested that he never saw a vaginal birth of a bigger baby because he always intervened. And after all, eight pounders are the norm these days. Here was a resident who was embarking on a career of Surgical obstetrics! He was clear with us that it was the feeling of not knowing that was frightening for him. To his credit, he agreed to let things go for a while and see how the scary future unfolded.

Soon Helen was ready to push and she pushed her twelve pound, seven ounce baby into the world without a scratch.

We need to be aware and alert to possible dangers but we cannot let our own fears create monsters that do not exist. Let us be midwives of change - sit on our hands, watch, encourage, and assist only when needed.

Egypt

I spent time in Egypt years ago, when I felt free to roam where I wanted. We explored the pathways behind the tourist spots and made some good friends during our stay there. It's hard to believe that it is the children of our (then) young Egyptian friends who are now exulting in the possibility of change in their fascinating country. Egypt has a history of great and powerful regimes, great thinkers, and a physical reality based on extremes of sand and water. Whatever happens, it will resonate worldwide.


Change is always painful, though. We humans like stability and we are, most of us, creatures of habit. I have witnessed the change that happens when a new baby enters the world, and although it is an experience full of joy and exhilaration, and power, and love ... it almost always contains an element of pain, sadness, or regret. Ties are broken, new ones are created.



Whatever happens in a country, revolutions, wars, or a long stretch of peace and prosperity, children are always being born, and women continue to give birth. This physical reality never changes.


How we perceive that reality can change, and what we do with it. Are we to continue to suggest to women that the best way to bring a child into the world is to be drugged, to feel no pain, or to have the baby removed like a diseased organ? Or are we going to take hold of an exuberance, the joy of being alive, and recognize that birth is like life, powerful, transcendent, revolutionary.

Shame!

In April of 2010, the National Post reported Stephen Harper announcing that “Canada will only fund maternal health projects in developing countries as long as the projects don’t divide Canadians.” This was harperspeak for saying that Canada will not be part of any initiative that funds safe abortion in developing countries.
Just this morning, Harper left for Geneva where he will co-chair a new UN accountability commission on child and maternal health in the Third World.
The president of the International Confederation of Midwives, praised the initiative: “… we need accountability. We need to know that the monies being spent are doing the right thing, that they're actually improving health care at the community level. And I think that it's really a coup for Canada."
Lynch said several developing nations have begun to take maternal and child health seriously as a barometer of their overall development and that Canada is well-placed to keep that momentum going.
Shame on you, Bridget Lynch, for not doing your homework! Where do Stephen Harper’s real loyalties rest, and how do they intersect with government planning at the highest level?
In 1981 I went to visit a young woman who was lucky enough to have survived her coat hanger abortion and was lying in a clean enough hospital in southern Africa. In the village, a scandal had just developed because a highly placed government official had been found with an eleven year old girl. These horrible things happen in Canada as well, and here we are allowed access to safe, clean hospitals and legal abortions. Why restrict these rights to the developed world?
It is our duty as women, as midwives, and as Canadians to help to make sure this woman’s daughters and granddaughters have access to all the health care services they need, and we cannot let our ideology and false morality get in the way.