In case you were wondering what you missed, here is Brynne Potter's thought-provoking speech,

Thank you so much for this recognition and for the opportunity to come together to celebrate our passions for safe and satisfying birth for mothers and babies. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to stand up on a soap box for five minutes and preach to the choir…two of my most guilty pleasures.

 

All of us who share history in the passing of CPM legislation and the subsequent forming of Birth Matters are united as part of a grand staging of an ancient parable of science and philosophy:

 

What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immoveable object? 

 

The object in this play is the institutional status quo. This immoveable and insidious medical authority tells us to be good girls and do as they say and never complain even when our bodies are used as economic stimulus to a dying industry. It maintains it’s position of king of the hill by deriding those who question it as selfish and those who provide alternatives as toothless crones who tend their stills and whelp babies in dirty backwoods cabins. And it consciously works to divide and subjugate to further insure that no one has the strength to pull up it’s deep roots.

 

Enter stage left, or right depending on your political leanings, the unstoppable force…us.

 

 For most of us, our entry into this collective force came through our birth experiences.  For some of you, it was in reaction to hitting the immovable object full-on during your pregnancies and births. For all of us, in your search for something different we found ourselves drawn towards a type of care that held a promise for a potential experience that would not only be safe and satisfying, but would also cause a shift of the lens in our perception that allowed us to see though some of the illusions that keep the power in the hands of the few. And as we found others who had also experienced the shift- we became a part of the force, and the force was with us. J

 

It carried us, at times kicking and screaming, right to the front doors of the immovable object.  And when we stood at the door for many years banging into the brick wall, the force drew more and more of us to this seemingly impossible cause.  And, eventually, what we experienced was the answer to the parable.  When the force is comprised of individuals who share a common passion, who shed their differences and join hands for a singular cause, they become unstoppable.  And when they hit an immovable object that is comprised of institutional, bureaucratic and unhealthy standards…they transform it.  Like waves on stone, we wear it down, smooth it over and make our way to shore.

 

And so here we are, on the tranquil shores of success.  Crystal clear waters, white sand, ripe fruit, and nearly every OB in Virginia falling over themselves to support natural birth and the midwives model.

 

Whoops…too much dreaming? J

 

It would be so nice if we could just close the book on this happy tale of the success of David over Goliath.  But as most of you know, our success has served as the equivalent of waking the sleeping giant. Most of you know about the recent attempts by the VA BOM to restrict the practice of CPMs, as well as the continued loss of practicing CNMs all over the state.  But, in part because of the legislative success of states like VA, Utah, Wisconsin, and Missouri, as well as the unprecedented success of The Business of Being Born, there is movement to try to eradicate our progress and to ensure that we are all put down far enough to keep us from ever trying to challenge authority in the future.

 

In June of this year, the AMA adopted a resolution to introduce legislation in all 50 states outlawing home birth, and potentially making criminals of the mothers who choose it. Citing no scientific evidence for this position, what the AMA proposes is a future where women are forced to have their babies in hospitals whose systems result in the surgical delivery of over 1/3 of all babies.

I have vacillated between two reactions to this development:  the first I call the anger-outrage-grief-despair combo.  I am tired, beaten down, and in disbelief that we actually asked to be part of a system that is so fundamentally flawed and inherently unfixable.

 

The second is the place that I know I learned and created in myself when I was part of the unstoppable force.  I know what it feels like to have the synergy of a thousand voices working together and transforming immoveable objects into allies and friends.  The current flowed in our direction and the tide finally came in and we found ourselves on the shore.  Yes, there is a strong undertow and it is trying to pull us back out to sea.  But this time we are already formed.  We are a united force with resources and wisdom of what it takes to transform obstacles.  This time it might look different.  We might not play this out on a big stage at the General Assembly, perhaps it will be in each of our local communities…we all need to join our local chapters of BirthMatters.  We need to each add our names to the database resource of the VABirthPAC, and all Virginia midwives and midwifery students need to join the Commonwealth Midwives Alliance to stay united and pool our resources of political strength.  If we can each do just this much, we will be unstoppable.

 

I hope that each of you who have stepped up to take a role in this cause can get the gift of bringing that force back into your personal lives and let it work for you to transform any personal obstacles that interfere with your dreams.

For information about future Birth Matters Events, click here.

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