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A Thirty-Five Year Path

Looking back over more than three decades of attending births I can see that home birth midwifery was an inevitable direction in my career. I have spent those years acquiring and honing skills that aren't necessarily taught in midwifery school and certainly aren’t taught to bodyworkers. Yet, these skills are the foundation and philosophy of what I practice and teach today. I love helping growing families and I am grateful for my opportunities to provide prenatal care, attend births and provide postpartum care. I have learned so much from these experiences that I now carry forward into my CST practice and teaching.

Being With Women

I became a birth attendant because I was alarmed by the stories women told about their birth experiences. Frequently, they told me they felt victimized or that they had lost part of their self-esteem in the process of giving birth. How could this be? How could bringing forth new life leave them feeling wounded, less accomplished or less valuable? I became convinced that if women were appropriately supported in growing, birthing and nurturing their babies, their lives would improve. When women's lives improve their children's health improves. Healthy children grow up to be healthier adults who create healthier communities and a saner, more peaceful world.

Being With Babies

In my experience as a Craniosacral Therapist I have noticed that it's not unusual for adults and children to re-experience their own births in a bodywork session. While "re-birthing" is not the general therapeutic intent of the work, it happens often enough to reveal a trend. The re-experienced events are in some way unpleasant and the residue is stored in the body leading to pain or loss of function. Left untreated, the effects can last a lifetime. Prevention is easy and, if necessary, treatment in the hours just after birth provides lasting benefit.

My Availability

My teaching schedule is so busy that I have become increasingly unappealing (as a midwife choice) to women who deserve continuity of care. I am, therefore, functionally retired from attending births, but not retired from the spirit of midwifery.

Therefore the midwife acts without doing anything

And teaches without saying anything.
Things arise and she lets them come;

Things disappear and she lets them go.

She has but doesn't possess,

Acts but doesn't expect.

When her work is done, she forgets it.

This is why it lasts forever.

    - Paraphrased from the Tao Te Ching

Carol Gray - The (Retired) Midwife