The Midwife and Doula as Natural Remedy

The Midwife and Doula as Natural Remedy

Michel Odent tells the story of a researcher who was working in a hospital and sat in a room with women in labor. He did not do anything except sit in a corner and write notes. The labors were shorter and there were fewer complications. When he left months later the same old long, interfered-with and complicated labors ensued. Just his presence, though he did nothing, affected labor and birth. That is also Michel’s explanation for the knitting midwife. Her quiet non-watching positively affects birth.

When I labored during my first homebirth it was just my hubbie and homebirth doctor, chatting about the home repairs they needed to do. I thought, “Well, if something was wrong they wouldn’t be talking calmly about home repairs.” I labored for less than an hour that way and Doctor Tom handed me my baby after three pushes. I was at home and home is where people belong in everyday life and in birth, if everything is okay.

I vividly remember a hospital in Poland I visited about 12–15 years ago. There was a woman walking the halls and alone in labor. My reaction was to stay with her, but I was just passing through. I remember feeling sad. At another hospital there were three women in labor. Two of them were panicking and moaning, needing only human love and touch. The other was being threatened with a cesarean for no reason at all. I felt so helpless but tried for my 15 minutes there to help the women. I actually got the laboring women to become calm, just through love and presence and attending.

Human presence, touch, love, care and calmness are perhaps the greatest natural remedies we have in our birthkits. We might call ourselves “humandurals”! We can take these remedies to any prenatal visit or birth. They don’t need to be washed, autoclaved or re-packed. We need to do the constant work of being kind, loving, caring and non-judgmental, as well as knowledgeable. When we nurture those traits in ourselves, we have the very best natural remedy God ever created for birth.

— Jan Tritten, mother of Midwifery Today

Jan Tritten is the founder, editor-in-chief and mother of Midwifery Today magazine. She became a midwife in 1977 after the amazing homebirth of her second daughter. Her mission is to make loving midwifery care the norm for birthing women and their babies throughout the world. Meet Jan at our conferences around the world, or join her online, as she works to transform birth practices around the world.

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Mandy-Saint Louis Doula