My project for childbirth advocacy requires that I define a platform for resistance and/or protest in my chosen social change area. So, I have been meditating on what kind of action can be taken for childbirth advocacy. Do I post signs or make buttons for women to wear? Do I organize a protest in Washington D.C.? What would make a difference and what is needed to promote change?
It immediately occurred to me that what needs to change is each individual woman's experience when discussing birth with other women. Isn't this, after all, the most potent source of discouragement for women who are otherwise powerful and independent, but who somehow feel disempowered when it comes to their births? As a childbirth educator and birth professional, I hear daily that women are disproportionately told birth "horror" stories over birth "success" stories, and encouraged to give over their power to medical intervention ("Oh, just get the epidural honey") rather than pursue the most natural, physiological experience possible.
My message for resistance/protest is this: If you are female and someone tells you the story of their baby's birth, request that they tell you how you can be most empowered by their story and in your own future experience...
"EMPOWER ME!"
If a group of women gathers and starts sharing stories of pain, medications, side effects, blue babies, fear, doubt, etc....
"EMPOWER ME!"
If another women tells you to just get the epidural, to schedule the induction or the c-section, to not be a hero or a mortar in the birth process...
"EMPOWER ME...With your stories about birth!"
Don't stand for the continuation of fear and passivity in passing on birth stories from one generation to the next. DEMAND that others' experience EMPOWER you to be as INDEPENDENT and POWERFUL as you are in every other area of your life!
Gain power from others' experience! Learn from them!
And then go out, with the strength (and blood, sweat and tears) of the women who have gone before you, and demand a quality experience in birth--for both you and your baby!
Say: "EMPOWER ME!!"
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