Many of our problems in US maternity care stem from the fact that we leave no room for recognizing when nature is smarter than we are.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that many issues in maternity care arise from a disregard for natural processes in childbirth.
Ina May Gaskin emphasizes the importance of acknowledging the wisdom of nature and how natural processes may be more effective than artificial interventions in maternity care. She suggests that by ignoring the innate knowledge present in childbirth, healthcare systems create unnecessary complications and challenges for mothers.
In practice
During a seminar on maternity care, one could quote this to stress the importance of natural childbirth practices.
A society that places a low value on its mothers and the process of birth will suffer an array of negative repercussions for doing so. Good beginnings make a positive difference in the world, so it is worth our while to provide the best possible care for mothers and babies throughout this extraordinarily influential part of life.
The way a culture treats women in birth is a good indicator of how well women and their contributions to society are valued and honored.
When we as a society begin to value mothers as the givers and supporters of life, then we will see social change in ways that matter.
Why do we, then, continue to treat women as if their emotions and comfort, and the postures they might want to assume while in labor, are against the rules?
Pregnant _x000D_ and birthing mothers are elemental forces, in the same sense that _x000D_ gravity, thunderstorms, earthquakes, and hurricanes are elemental _x000D_ forces. In order to understand the laws of their energy flow, you have _x000D_ to love and respect them for their magnificence at the same time that _x000D_ you study them with the accuracy of a true scientist.
Simply put, when there is no home birth in a society, or when home birth is driven completely underground, essential knowledge of women’s capacities in birth is lost to the people of that society—to professional caregivers, as well as to the women of childbearing age themselves.
Eating is always a decision, nobody forces your hand to pick up food and put it into your mouth.
Kids who participate in school meal programs get roughly half of their calories each day at school. ... This is an extraordinary responsibility. But it's also an opportunity. And it's why one of the single most important things we can do to fight childhood obesity is to make those meals at school as healthy and nutritious as possible.
We would like to see the virtual elimination of the transmission of [HIV] from mother to child by 2015. ... We believe it can be achieved with political will.
Cure sometimes, treat often, comfort always.
The unique function of the nurse is to assist the individual, sick or well, in the performance of those activities contributing to health or its recovery (or to peaceful death) that he would perform unaided if he had the necessary strength, will or knowledge. And to do this in such a way as to help him gain independence as rapidly as possible.
By the proper intakes of vitamins and other nutrients and by following a few other healthful practices from youth or middle age on, you can, I believe, extend your life and years of well-being by twenty-five or even thirty-five years.
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