Latin America Claims to Love Its Mothers. Why Does It Abuse Them?

from The New York Times

How the region became home to an epidemic of obstetric violence.

By Vanessa Barbara

Ms. Barbara is an author and a contributing opinion writer.

March 11, 2019

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Five years ago, a Brazilian woman in labor was detained by police officers and forced to deliver by C-section.

The woman, Adelir de Goes, had already had two cesarean sections — an all-too-common procedure in my country — and was hoping to deliver her third child vaginally. But her baby was in breech presentation. Doctors felt that a vaginal birth would put the baby in danger.

And so they got a court order for a mandatory operation. Ms. de Goes was almost fully dilated and preparing to return to the hospital when nine police officers knocked on her door to take her away. In the hospital, she was anesthetized, and operated on without her consent. Women’s rights groups denounced the procedure as an assault on her autonomy and a violation of her right to make informed decisions about her baby’s health as well as her own.

But if Ms. de Goes’s case was especially notorious, it was also far from exceptional. According to a 2010 survey, one in every four Brazilian women has suffered mistreatment during labor. Many of them were denied pain relief or weren’t informed about a procedure that was being done to them. Twenty-three percent were verbally abused by a health professional; one of the most common insults was “Na hora de fazer não chorou” (“You didn’t cry like that when making the baby”).

Another survey found that, in 2011, 75 percent of women in labor in hospitals were not provided water and food (last year, I became one of them), although this practice is not supported by scientific evidence. The World Health Organization recommends that low-risk women in labor eat or drink as they wish.

But some doctors are unaware of the concept of “wish” as it relates to women. Faced with a patient who refuses a procedure, they do it to her anyway. “I am the boss here,” they insist.

Outraged by this enduring abuse, Latin American women in the last few decades have helped to identify and to legally define a different type of gender-based violence: “obstetric violence.” It refers to disrespectful, abusive or neglectful treatment during pregnancy, childbirth, abortion and the postpartum period.

One example is episiotomy, a surgical cut in the vagina made during labor that has been proven ineffective and even harmful when performed routinely. Doctors still perform it in Brazil, with or without the women’s consent. And when it’s suturing time, they sometimes include an extra stitch to supposedly tighten the vagina to increase male pleasure — a “husband stitch.” (Five years ago, in Rio de Janeiro, an obstetrician was caught on video asking a patient’s husband, “Do you want it small, medium or large?”)

The struggle against obstetric violence in Latin America began in the 1990s with activists’ efforts to disseminate evidence-based practices in maternal and newborn care. Those efforts were encouraged by a document issued by the World Health Organization in 1996 (“Care in Normal Birth: A Practical Guide”), which warns against turning a normal physiological event into a medical procedure, via “the uncritical adoption of a range of unhelpful, untimely, inappropriate and/or unnecessary interventions, all too frequently poorly evaluated.”

Within a few years of the report, Uruguay (2001), Argentina (2004), Brazil (2005) and Puerto Rico (2006) approved laws granting women the right to be accompanied during labor and delivery. Brazil and Argentina also developed broader legislation encouraging the “humanization” of childbirth.

In 2007, Venezuela became the first nation to create a law specifically addressing obstetric violence. Two years later, Argentina enacted a similar law; it was followed by Panama, multiple states in Mexico, Bolivia (with a law referring to “violence against reproductive rights” and “violence in health services”) and El Salvador (this one calling for dignified treatment in maternal and reproductive health services).

These laws came not a moment too soon. In Latin America, reports of obstetric violence have been extensively documented. They’ve even come to be expected, as if this is the price women have to pay for having any sexuality. The most common kinds of mistreatment are non-consensual procedures (including sterilization), non-evidence-based interventions like routine episiotomies, and physical, verbal and sexual abuse.

We can only wonder why obstetric abuse is so ubiquitous in Latin America, a place where motherhood is often sanctified. Maybe it’s precisely because of this. In our conservative, patriarchal societies, a woman’s true vocation is to be a mother. We must sacrifice ourselves to fulfill our biological destinies. This means submitting to the wills of husbands and doctors; selflessness and devotion are our most prized attributes. And if we remain long-suffering saints, we cannot gain sexual consciousness, or bodily autonomy.

Putting a name to the practice of obstetric violence is the first step toward standing up against it, and so, of course, doctors have begun fighting back. Last year, Brazil’s Federal Council of Medicine condemned the term obstetric violence as an aggression toward doctors bordering on “hysteria.” Note that the council did not condemn the violence itself, merely the word choices of the victims. I wonder if it used the word “hysteria” on purpose.

In a similar vein, in February, Rio de Janeiro’s Regional Medical Council issued a resolution forbidding obstetricians from signing personal birth plans, calling them a deleterious “fad.” The council also argued that childbirth is risky and demands quick decisions that doctors should be able to make without the fear of legal repercussions. “There is no time to explain what will be done or to revoke birth plans,” it stated. According to the council, obstetric violence is “another invented term to defame doctors.”

It is disappointing to see that some doctors are more concerned with the way this semantic “aggression” injures their prestige than with the concrete, horrendous reality of abuse that abounds against women in childbirth, not only in Latin America but elsewhere. It’s plain that they resent the limitations on their authority.

But pregnancy is not an exception to the idea that a capable patient has the right to make informed decisions about her medical care. Health care providers should not “explain what will be done” to pregnant women; they should honestly discuss our choices and respect our bodily autonomy.

And choosing another term such as “disrespect during childbirth” instead of “obstetric violence” will not soften the atrocities often committed by caregivers in the name of “doctor knows best.”

More from Vanessa Barbara see NYT Opinion:

Hairy Baby? Better Get a C-section. Gingivitis? C-section. Scoliosis? C-section. 

Aug. 27, 2018

Vanessa Barbara, a contributing opinion writer, is the editor of the literary website A Hortaliça and the author of two novels and two nonfiction books in Portuguese.

A Teaser from the next book called, PUSH! The Sequel

The Tooth Fairy

Or

Why Can’t All Babies Be Welcomed Like This?

Renya was expecting her first baby, and she and Chris weren’t sure yet what planet they have landed on. Baby showers, advice from aunts and uncles they haven’t spoken to in years, doctor appointments, urine samples, GBS testing, no more smoking, low-sugar diets, ultrasounds, no more Coca Cola, and definitely no joints, alcohol, or all-night parties. And when did Chris’ mom start hanging out at Baby Gap stores, bringing home all sorts of miniature sports gear? They are left wondering when they stopped being kids fooling around with a little of everything that kids fool around with, at least all the ones they’ve ever known, to becoming Parents-To-Be. This is scary. This is very different. There are a whole lot of “you shoulds” and “you shouldn’ts” that go along with all this. And what is a doula anyway?

In the middle of all this confusion they get a call from me. “Hi. I am your doula.”

“Wassup?”

“Your DOO-la.” I should have said, “Your fairy godmother,” or “The tooth fairy” and they would have understood a bit more, perhaps.

“Yo.”

“I would like to make an appointment to get together and explain a bit about what we do.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“How ‘bout next Thursday afternoon after your regular clinic appointment?”

I get a grunt that I take for a “Yes.”

“Good. See you then.”

Grunt.

The waiting room looks and sounds more like the waiting room at the tuberculosis sanatorium I once visited in the 1960s. I guess that the same germs are present here, too, as prolifically as well. People hacking, sneezing, and spewing in all directions; babies screaming, teenagers smoking in huddles by the entrance, a smattering of obviously homeless people lining up at the free coffee pot, and an argument between a clearly drunk client and the receptionist.

The referral I received didn’t tell me too much except that Renya is Native American, has had a healthy pregnancy, and plans to breastfeed. So far so good. There are a few women in the waiting room that could be pregnant. No one is waving me over or anything so I finally asked a nurse if she could check if my client was already in an exam room and it turned out that that is exactly where they were.

At first I didn’t see Renya. All I saw was this gigantic African American man. Almost seven feet tall (6’ 8” to be exact) at 425 pounds, dread locks, cargo shorts and team jersey t-shirt, with ear plugs connected to something in his pocket. When I ask he tells me his shoes are 18EEEE. The only time I ever saw bigger shoes was when I recently toured the Red Wing Shoe Factory Museum in Red Wing, Minnesota with my grandson. They had the original pair of shoes they had made for the biggest man in the U.S., Igor Vovkovinskiy, who wore a size 23EEEEE when he was 16 years old. All I could think of was: “Wow! The BFG!” Chris turned out to be the BFG of Minneapolis. Our kids had loved Roald Dahl's BFG: The Big Friendly Giant book, and I was meeting the man himself!

Renya actually was in the room. Half his height or girth, she was very pregnant which was accentuated by a bright striped sundress. She wasn’t due for another month but looked quite ready to me. I was glad I’d have time to get to know them. We started out with my Doula movie, a short documentary made here in Minnesota. Afterwards I asked if they had any questions. Chris actually had a whole list he had been saving up. They were all very insightful, too. I was amazed at how much he already knew about birth and babies. Definitely more than most first-time dads. He was no slouch; he was determined to be a great dad.

At our next appointment we covered the childbirth ed breastfeeding class. They weren’t able to make it for the one at their hospital, so we piggy-backed onto her regular clinic appointment once again and used the clinic’s room and DVD player. Half way through the two Why-To and How-To Breastfeeding videos Chris’s phone rang. He answered it as I put the film on pause. Before I knew what was happening, he yelled into the phone one giant: “DAMN!” and ran out of the room ducking through the doorway to finish the call. He returned a few minutes later to tell us that his brother had just been shot in the hip at close range in Chicago and was being wheeled into surgery at that moment. I was stunned. Then they speculated about what kind of gun it could have been. I gathered that they were hoping it wasn’t a .22 rifle which they explained to me could have shot him in the hip, with the bullet ricocheting upward, further damaging other areas and organs, with the possibility of being fatal. I didn’t know what to think. This was so awful. I began to pack up the video then, but Chris said we should finish it up. I told him we could do it next time but he insisted, so we watched the rest of the video, while they continued to wonder what their brother’s chances of survival could be. I marveled that they acted like this happened every day. Were their lives so precarious? Did they live with this kind of violent drama on a daily basis? I hugged them both goodbye when their taxi came, though I had to go up on tippy-toe and Chris had to bend way down to reach my 5’ 4” height for my hug, assuring Chris I would be praying for his brother.

The next day I got a text from Renya inviting me to her baby shower the following Sunday. I have grappled with this over time. Should I attend my clients’ baby parties or should I maintain a strictly professional relationship with them? I decided to simply see, case by case, what felt right to do, and Renya and Chris both added that they really hoped I could make it, so I seriously considered going to this one. Afterwards, I realized that I had just been to a once-in-a-lifetime event. Whatever told me I should go was right, this time at least.

The shower started out like any other baby shower I have been to with silly games and fruit punch, the house draped in pink crepe paper streamers and It’s A Girl! balloons. Renya was wearing a sash over one shoulder and draped over her beautiful belly that said, “Mother-to-Be.” A tiny flannel diaper with a miniature clothes pin attached to it was pinned to each guest as we came in with instructions not to open either up until told to do so.

I looked into my punch as I sat down with the other ladies and then did a double-take. There was a tiny plastic pink baby frozen into an ice cube bobbing around in my cup. Now this was a new one for me. The MC of the afternoon announced the rules of the first game: The lady with the first baby to come out of the ice cube all on its own without any help has to stand up and shout, “My water broke!” and will get a prize. Groan. What am I in for? I wondered.

The diaper was explained next. You will be told when all the guests have arrived what to do with it. As far as the tiny clothes pin, if you see anyone crossing their legs throughout the party, you can take their clothes pin and add it to yours on your little diaper and the lady with the most clothes pins at the end of the afternoon will win a prize.

I wandered around the house, refilling my punch, mingling with all the other ladies, meeting Chris’s mom and Renya’s Dad and uncles who were busy grilling an amazing lunch out in the garage. The only clue I had so far that Renya’s family were interested in their roots and Native tradition was that she had mentioned some of the names they were considering for their baby girl and the Indian meanings for them. And it seemed to me that a lot of the guests had elaborate medallion and intricate, beautiful feather tattoos with symbols I didn’t recognize.

Several people checked on me periodically, asking if I had enough to eat and drink and was I having a good time. The food was spectacular: spicy steak tortillas, red rice, refry beans, and other very amazing dishes. I was too full in the end to eat the cake. Everything was so good.

Then the MC stood up and asked everyone to look inside the little diaper that they had received at the beginning of the party. The one with poop (mustard, actually) would win the grand prize. No one in the room had one that had mustard poop in it. The MC finally announced that it must have been with the friend who came earlier to drop off a gift but wasn’t able to stay the whole time and had left already.

The next game was explained to us: The MC would walk around the circle with a roll of toilet paper from which you had to unwind as much as you thought would be the equivalent of Renya’s bump or waist line. The MC already knew the correct measurement. We all did it and then our MC measured each one until someone had the exact length. Renya’s grandmother got the prize for this one. I wasn’t anywhere close.

Finally it was time to open the gifts. People had been very generous here, too. Renya and Chris’s baby could not possibly wear all the beautiful things she got. Her grandma, this baby’s great-grandma (bisabuela in Aztec) figured out that this baby would have to wear most items only once to make the rounds of all the stuff within the first year, by which time she would have outgrown every single one of them. Little did we know she would actually be too big at birth and only be able to wear the clothes that were intended for ten-pound, six-month-old babies and bigger.

At the party Chris sat down next to me at one point to fill me in on how his brother in Chicago was doing. It was a sawed-off .22 rifle as they had feared, but because it was discharged at close range it went straight through his hip and out the other side, sparing any further damage. He was quite relieved that his brother would be OK. This time.

Then the dancers arrived and we were all ushered out to the expansive back yard. About eight Native dancers, all decked out in exquisite regalia formed two lines and Renya was escorted and deposited into a central lawn chair. These dancers were not dressed in “costumes” as some of us less informed gringos might imagine. Native or First Nation people’s original dress is called “regalia” and expresses their deepest connections to the past generations. 

"What’s done to children, they will do to society." ~ Karl Menninger

A drummer was stationed to Renaya’s left, along with the drummer’s little son who could not have been more than three years old, who had an exact replica of his daddy’s large drum. With a nod from his dad, the drumming began. The dancers, too, were accompanied by two child dancers who followed the intricate steps of their parents as best they could and didn’t seem to be embarrassed when they couldn’t keep up but just forged ahead. Incense was lit and joined the dance until it was presented to Renya where she sat and left on the ground before her. At intervals the drumming changed to a different rhythm and a new dance began. It was stunning. Feathered headdresses waving with the dancers, rattles tied on the dancers’ ankles shaking with the beating of the drums, twirling, stamping, and leaping. I had never seen anything like it. Why can’t all babies be welcomed like this? I thought to myself. 

Less than a week later Chris called to tell me they are on their way to the hospital. It was a false alarm. We had two others that week, which is fine with me. I would rather be there to tell them not to be discouraged, that this is perfectly normal, especially with a first baby, and assured them that they can call me again any time. The next day I received a cryptic text: “We r guna go 2 hosp.” That turned out to be another false alarm. Finally, when they called the third time we realized it was the real thing. The contractions were pretty intense and building. The nurse announced that Renya was three centimeters and already 100% effaced, so we weren’t going anywhere this time. High fives all around. YES! Let’s do this!

By eight centimeters, Renya had changed her mind and asked if we couldn’t postpone this for another date. I said, “No, that isn’t happening. Your baby had gotten the official eviction notice. The more you walk and stay up on the birth ball, the sooner you will be holding her in your arms. You can do this, sweetheart.” I told her that this labor reminded me of the dancing at her baby shower. If she could imagine the drumming, that labor is actually very similar: the intense beat rising and falling, growing stronger and receding. The dancers coming closer with each new dance until she is presented with the incense and their prayers for this next journey we are now on.

Ten centimeters and the urge to push. After an hour of pushing, the midwives become concerned. Baby has not moved down at all. She should be at least halfway down the birth canal by now. The waters break and they are clear; the monitors tell them that their baby is still doing OK, too, all good signs, but this labor is going on so long now that they are concerned that her uterus might tucker out and cause too much bleeding eventually. Another hour goes by and the midwives consult with the OB doctor on that night who comes to talk to Chris and Renya about her concerns and they agree to a C-section. I know they are relieved and I don’t want to second guess their birth team. This baby really might be too big for her to birth vaginally. I am not the midwife this time, and I haven’t felt in there. I assure Renya that she has done everything possible and could not have worked harder, and my guess is that we will probably know what all was really going on inside once we see her baby. Which is exactly what happens. Though the ultra sounds told us it was a big baby, probably around nine pounds, she turns out to be closer to 11—Yes, as in pounds. And she even looks like her daddy who is on cloud nine by now as he literally dances her from the warmer back to her mommy at the head of the OR table.

I come back the next day and find a ravenous baby girl nursing non-stop during my whole visit. Her sugars are normal so Renya can stop worrying about that and just enjoy their beautiful baby girl. They have already fallen in love with her. So have I. Her name is Xochaitl, a Native name pronounced, SO-chee. Again I think, Why can’t all babies be welcomed like this one?

more birth quotes from my next book, PUSH! the Sequel, coming soon!

Paul Michael Bedell's happiness mantra is: "If you can do something, or believe you can, begin it; boldness has genius, power and magic within it!"

 "Each moment in time we have it all, even when we think we don't." ~ Melody Beattie

 “All over the world there exists in every society a small group of women who feel themselves strongly attracted to giving care to other women during pregnancy and childbirth. Failure to make use of this group of highly motivated people is regrettable and a sin against the principle of subsidiarity.” ~ Dr. Kloosterman, Chief of OB/GYN, University of Amsterdam, Holland

“A child is a most desirable pest.” ~ Max Gramlich

"The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention. When mindfulness

embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh,

Buddhist monk, peace advocate, and scholar

“The traditional midwife believes that birth proceeds in a spiral fashion: labor starts, stops, and starts while the baby goes down, up and down, and the cervix opens, closes and opens. Nature has no design for failure; she holds her own meaning for success.” ~ Sher Willis

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music." ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

“Motherhood is like Albania – you can’t trust the brochures; you have to go there.”

 ~ Mami Jackson

“Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.” ~ Pema ChÖdrom

“There is no other organ quite like the uterus. If men had such an organ they would brag about it. So should we.” ~ Ina May Gaskin

“Having a highly trained obstetrical surgeon attend a normal birth is analogous to having a pediatric surgeon babysit a healthy 2-year-old.” ~ Marsden Wagner

“Unfortunately, the role of obstetrics has never been to help women give birth. There is a big difference between the medical discipline we call ‘obstetrics’ and something completely different, the art of midwifery. If we want to find safe alternatives to obstetrics, we must rediscover midwifery. To rediscover midwifery is the same as giving back childbirth to women.  And imagine the future if surgical teams were at the service of the midwives and the women instead of controlling them.” ~ Michel Odent

“Logically, the abnormal cannot be identified without a clear scientific definition of the variations of normal. Obstetrics lacks this because the risk concept implies that all pregnancy and birth is risky and therefore no pregnancy or birth can be considered normal until it is over. In other words, one cannot claim both the ability to separate normal and abnormal during pregnancy and the inability to determine normality until after birth. The wide variation which occurs in the healthy experience of childbirth is too large for a single, uniform definition of ‘normality’, which can be used to define ‘abnormality.’” Marsden Wagner

“The guys who fear becoming fathers don’t understand that fathering is not something perfect men do, but something that perfects the man. The end product of raising a child is not the child, but the parent.” ~ Frank Pittman

“There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it.” ~ Chinese proverb

“There’s more to life than increasing its speed.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

“The knowledge of how to give birth without outside interventions lies deep within each woman. Successful childbirth depends on an acceptance of the process.” ~ Anonymous

“People who say they sleep like a baby usually don’t have one.” ~ Leo J. Burke

“If we are to heal the planet, we must begin by healing birthing.”  

~Agnes Sallet Von Tannenberg

“This may be the hardest part of being a doula: You have found that inner power and have seen it work a hundred or more times, but you cannot make that journey happen for another woman, no matter how much you love her.” ~Stephanie Sorensen

“Babies are such a nice way to start people.” ~ Don Herold

“A perfect example of minority rule is a baby in the house.” ~ Anonymous

"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." ~ Maya Angelou (1928 – 2014)

“In achieving the depersonalization of childbirth and at the same time solving the problem of pain, our society may have lost more than it has gained. We are left with the physical husk; the transcending significance has been drained away. In doing so, we have reached the goal which is perhaps implicit in all highly developed technological cultures, mechanized control of the human body and the complete obliteration of all disturbing sensations.” ~ Sheila Kitzinger

“Mothers need to know that their care and their choices won’t be compromised by birth politics.” ~ Jennifer Rosenberg

“Natural childbirth allows the hormones that have been working for women for thousands of years to fulfill their functions. This is more important than just helping a woman through labor and delivery. Birth-related hormones also affect well-being much later in life.” ~ Janet Schwegel

“Fatherhood is the most creative, complicated, fulfilling, frustrating, engrossing, enriching, depleting endeavor of a man’s adult life.” ~ Kyle D. Pruett

“Birth is not only about making babies. Birth is about making mothers – strong, competent, capable mothers who trust themselves and know their inner strength.” ~ Barbara Katz Rothman

“Many women have described their experiences of childbirth as being associated with a spiritual uplifting, the power of which they have never previously been aware. To such a woman childbirth is a monument of joy within her memory. She turns to it in thought to seek again an ecstasy which passed too soon.” ~ Grantly Dick-Read

“Women’s strongest feelings, positive and negative, focus on the way they were treated by their caregivers.” ~ Annie Kennedy & Penny Simkin

What would happen if bonding with our babies looked like this?

“Drink your tea (or hold your baby) slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future. Live the actual moment.”

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

“The effort to separate the physical experience of childbirth from the mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of this event has served to dis-empower and violate women.”~ Mary Rucklos Hampton

"What’s done to children, they will do to society." ~ Karl Menninger

“No one who has ever brought up a child can doubt for a moment that love is literally the life-giving fluid of human existence.” ~ Smiley Blanton

“Sometimes the only thing that makes a woman’s pregnancy high risk is her choice of a care provider.” ~ Anonymous

“Remember this, for it is as true as true gets: Your body is not a lemon. You are not a machine. The Creator is not a careless mechanic. Human female bodies have the same potential to give birth as well as aardvarks, lions, rhinoceri, elephants, moose, and water buffalo. Even if it has not been your habit throughout your life so far, I recommend that you learn to think positively about your body.” Ina May Gaskin, Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, 2003 

“We have a secret in our culture, it’s not that birth is painful, it’s that women are strong.” ~ Laura Stavoe Harm 

“The way a woman gives birth can affect the whole of the rest of her life. How can that not matter? Unless the woman herself does not matter” Beverley Beech and Belinda Phipps

"Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again." ~ Og Mandino

"Relax, nothing is under control" ~ Adi Da Samraj

“In raising my children I have lost my mind but found my soul.” ~ Anonymous

 “Never once in my life did I ask God for success or wisdom or power or fame. I asked for wonder, and he gave it to me.”  ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”  ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive.”

~ Dalai Lama

"If you knew exactly what the future held, you still wouldn't know how much you would like it when you got there," Gilbert says. In pursuing happiness, he suggests, "We should have more trust in our own resilience and less confidence in our predictions about how we'll feel. We should be a bit more humble and a bit more brave." ~ Daniel Todd Gilbert, Professor of Psychology at Harvard University

"That first little cry is mightier than the cheers of ten thousand people.” ~ Anonymous

“I don’t know why they say, ‘You have a baby.’  The baby has you.” ~ Gallagher

"The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence. More than that, it is cooperation in violence. The frenzy of the activist...destroys his own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of his own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful."

 ~ Thomas Merton, (1915 – 1968), Trappist monk, author

“A truth’s initial commotion is directly proportional to how deeply the lie was believed. When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker, a raving lunatic.” ~ Dresden James

"Natural childbirth has evolved to suit the species, and if mankind chooses to ignore her advice and interfere with her workings we must not complain about the consequences. We have only ourselves to blame." ~ Margaret Jowitt

“A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.”

~ Carl Sandburg

“There is power that comes to women when they give birth. They don’t ask for it, it simply invades them. Accumulates like clouds on the horizon and passes through, carrying the child with it.” ~ Sheryl Feldman