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 My name is Elsabé and I am a mother of a teenager and a trained nurse and midwife. I enjoyed my general nursing training, but it was only when I did my midwifery that my passion started to take seed. About 25 years ago I found Ina May Gaskin’s book, Spiritual Midwifery in a small esoteric bookstore in Cape Town. I was hooked; it became my bible for the next couple of years, finding inspiration in the stories. But that is where it stayed, in my head and in my thoughts. I did not share it with anyone.
During this period, I worked as a midwife in several of our private clinics. The birthing of my son took place in the hospital where I worked, surrounded by my colleagues and friends. The birth turned out to be a typical hospital birth, with interventions left, right and centre. Yet, there was lots of laughter and excitement and I have no regrets.
I started teaching antenatal classes at night after the birth of my son, and it was only then that I realised what powerful influence the medical fraternity had over pregnant mothers and how easily they could manipulate the outcomes of births. I was a stay at home mom for 3 years before I started working full time again. It was great being able to spend those years with my son, I breastfed him for 3 years and we had a wonderful time together.
As the years went by, I explored the different birthing ways and found comfort in birthing the mother’s way, by using instinct and inner guidance. I was send to Paris by my work to attend a Midwifery Today conference in 2001. Tertia, my sister came over on the last two days so that we could spend a further couple of days visiting family in the Nederlands.
That week and the two days we spent together in Paris was the final sway I needed.
Women need to be empowered and given the correct information so that they can be allowed to listen to their hearts and instinct.
And the medical fraternity need to get a wake up call and start realising what they are doing by taking a natural process of life and turning it into a medical procedure.
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