Gloria Lemay has been attending births in BC for over 25 years. She has faced relentless persecution by the BC College of Midwives for not having joined their organization and becoming "regulated" in 1998, and yet, remains one of the most sought after birth educators and birth attendants in the province.
To learn more about Gloria's classes, seminars and events in the lower mainland, see our events page.
To learn more about Gloria Lemay visit www.glorialemay.com or
to contact her email (remove spaces)
birth (at) uniserve . com
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Comments by Gloria LemayI think the U.S. has had a similar legal history over the past 200 years to Canada. Basically, the thrust of the judicial process has been to free the ordinary man from oppressive regulation and restriction so that he could live his life to his full ability and for the good of the greater society. Women's rights and freedoms were put on the shelf while a lot of this work was happening and it's not so very long ago that --women struggled to get the right to vote, women were not permitted to have information and access to birth control, women could not be openly homosexual, women could not breast feed in public, women could not be physicians, women could not choose abortion with a medical practitioner, women had to go before medical panels to explain that they would go crazy if they didn't get an abortion, women could not get a midwife that was not an outlaw, women could be forced against their will to have a cesarean, women could not refuse vaccines for their children, women could not choose to home school their children. When I tell most young women about this, they are in complete disbelief.
It seems impossible that a nurse was put on trial in Canada for selling condoms to poor women with huge families in the l950s, It seems inconceivable that Russian immigrant grandmothers burned down the government schools in their community here in B.C. (Sons of Freedom Doukhobors) and went to jail to protest the government schooling of their children. In a few years, it will seem inconceivable that women were restricted in their choice to have whatever people they wanted to come into their private home and assist in the birth of their children. There is a crystallization of consciousness that has been emerging for years. It is the realization of how totally ridiculous it is to think that any midwife would not do her very best to support mother/baby health. It is ridiculous to think that any law, rule, or regulation could ever be written that would be a greater incentive than the natural incentive that no midwife ever wants to witness another woman holding a dead baby if it can be avoided. It is the ridiculous to think that a baby or mother could die of anything in the care of a midwife that hasn't happened to a doctor at some hospital.
I think that a great problem with midwives and midwifery generally is that we are too easily martyred and, at a group and personal level, have a very low estimation of our own worth. There is a payoff in terms of getting sympathy and feeling righteous in this attitude but it costs us greatly in terms of real power. I think it's high time we stopped pretending that we can "look after" birthing families without having their absolute assurance that they can "look after" us. What does "looking after" mean? It simply means an adult partnership where we give our 100% best to fulfill their birth goals and they pay us fairly and agree to complain directly to us and protect us if things don't go well. This is what all other businesses put into place and yet the midwifery business has been presenting this "good woman" who can somehow be mentally tortured, professionally abused, humiliated, scorned, kept in poverty and still go out with a big smile and perform miracles.
It is a lie and it's not working for anyone. I am on the ICAN (International Cesarean Awareness Network) Advisory Board. Membership to this Board is a devastating education in how much the midwifery lies are keeping the obstetrical nightmare in place in North. America. The high cesarean rate will continue until we start treating the birthing families as full adult partners and stop feeding them the notion that we are their saviors or their killers. They don't want that and they hate us when we're not straight with them. The only way we will attract mentally healthy young women into the field of midwifery is if we respect ourselves and have joy in our work.
It's time to stand up in courts right across the continent and say "Look this midwifery curtailment is not appropriate for women in the year 2002 and I'm going to oppose it just as other women opposed all those other silly restrictions on their mothering and reproduction processes. If you need to jail me, go for it. The silliness stops here." This is certainly what will happen in B.C. I have been in the birth business for 25 years. When I talk to young pregnant women and they are still facing the same crap that I faced 25 years ago, I am unwilling to put up with it any longer. The government does not love the baby more than the mother. The mother may not be perfect but she's the best bet we have for the welfare of the baby and if she wants to give birth in a shack with a chimpanzee helping her, I'll go to prison, if necessary, to stand for her right to choose. [ While the government of my province had a private detective on my tail for 7 months investigating my activities, a serial killer was killing prostitutes in my city and the police turned a blind eye. 50 women went missing over a ten year period and the pleas of their families and friends fell on deaf ears.]
The ridiculous harassment of midwives has continued with our compliance. The extraordinary amount of human time, energy, and money that has been wasted could all have been put to good use in nutrition programs for pregnant women. I am a stand that there will be no more of this nonsense in the province where I live and that, out of B.C. recognizing the freedom of every woman to choose where, when and with whom to give birth, every other jurisdiction in North America will follow suit. The time is right for a revolution.
Gloria
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