Still a Midwife

A few days ago, a dear friend asked how I was adjusting to the changes in my birthing role as a doctor. Then today, a new friend sent me the following poem, written by a graduate nurse-midwife in response to the news that her practice would not include deliveries. While it, of course, does not address the specific changes that I have made over the course of the last 10 years, the spirit captured here resonates within my heart...that I am still a midwife!

Still a Midwife
I am a midwife.
I am “with woman.”
My hands may only know the memory of catching babies,
But I AM a midwife.
I may miss at times the energy of labor
And the intensity of birth,
But I am still a midwife, and am still “with woman.”
I am with her as she discovers the joy of having become pregnant.
I am with her as I hold her while she weeps for a baby lost.
I am with woman as I welcome new midwives into this sisterhood.
I may at times long for the perfect cry of a new life,
Or remember the primal scent of childbirth,
But I am still a midwife, and am still “with woman.”
I am with woman as she sits; wide-eyed and frightened, waiting for her first pelvic exam.
I am with woman as I teach her to embrace her health.
My place of practice may not be a delivery room, or a birth center . . .
But I still have the heart and hands of a midwife
And forever will be “with woman.”
~Jen Meyers