Special thanks to Mar a Vergara, from El Bols n Argentina, for sharing great aspects of her experience as a midwife and for reaffirming through her experience the significant changes she has noticed in the new generations!!!
Feminine energies in action and Co-relation.
PARTERAS, A HOMEWORK FROM LOVE, GUIDED BY THE HEART !!!
For thousands of years, since long before there were doctors or hospitals, midwives have been helping women stay healthy, helping babies to be born and helping families grow. If you ask a woman why she prefers the care of a midwife, she will tell you that the midwives know a lot, have patience and respect the traditions of women.
(Quote from the text "A book for midwives. Pregnancy care, childbirth and women's health") (Susan Klein, Suellen Miller and Fiona Thomson. A book for midwives. Pregnancy, childbirth and health care First edition in Spanish, February 2007. All rights reserved © The Hesperian Foundation, 2007. Berkeley, California, p.12.
Download text at hesperian.info/assets/parteras/Parteras_00SecFrontal.pdf)
The WHO (World Health Organization: Article Dr. Carlos Castellanos Torres. The role of midwives in our society. WHO, February 8, 2009.) defines traditional midwives as:… a person (usually a woman) attending to the mother in the course of childbirth, and who initially acquired her skills by attending her births herself or working with other traditional midwives; however, the provision of basic care to mothers during the normal maternity cycle, newborn care, distribution of modern family planning methods and intervention in other primary health care activities, including identification, should be included. and sending high-risk patients.
Traditional midwives fulfill in our community three basic functions, these focus on the role they play within their community.
Affective relationship
The first one is based on the emotional relationship that the midwife establishes with pregnant women, which generates confidence in the latter as they perceive her close and familiar, this reduces anxiety in the parturient, unlike the one It is caused in institutionalized medical services.
The second function is derived from the midwife's knowledge of the economic needs and deficiencies of women who require their service, coupled with their own traditions of practice, which leads to a significant reduction in costs for the family.
The third function is based on the support received from midwives for household chores and childcare.
These three functions added to the lack of services, make traditional midwives a highly demanded human resource, especially in rural communities.
Let us therefore recognize the importance of the work that these people play in our societies, so it is necessary to continue with a culture of integration and respect for these popular practices and the cultural processes in which they participate.
Now, let's get ready to delight in the wonderful experience of Mary.
I am María Vergara, mother of 5 children between 30 and 10 years old (Fermín, Sarah Sofía, Pedro León, Miguel Ángel and Juana Catalina (biological) plus the children of the heart !!!), I live in the mountains of Patagonia, El Bolson, Rio Negro, Argentina.
I have been accompanying births for 28 years, I am an empirical doula and a midwife apprentice (student of the school of community midwives, Córdoba, Argentina) and I am amazed to see how babies have changed during these 30 years of observing them ...
Babies are born more awake
Babies are born more awake, more attentive, with big eyes looking at everything!
At birth we prioritize immediate contact with his mother and then we put the baby on the mother's breast, there he recognizes the voice of both the mother and the father, and makes eye contact with them with a deep and communicative look ...
I accompany the couple during pregnancy, that's why they know my voice and I sing them especially in the meetings and during the birth as well, and many times it happens to me that I speak to the baby thanking the beautiful birth we have lived and this smiles at me !!! I feel they have a very developed capacity for understanding and connection.
Already from pregnancy we see that the baby has a connection and interaction not only with the breast but with the rest of the people who accompany the pregnancy ...
With the father and brothers especially respond to the stimuli. If they talk to the belly or sing or when they get home after school or work, the babies kick happily upon arrival!
Healthy food
With regard to the mother's diet during pregnancy I have observed that these babies somehow influence the type of food and even the mother's habits. These leave unhealthy habits such as tobacco, alcohol, etc. They require a healthier diet, richer in fruits and vegetables, cereals and grains. Even these babies after birth, when they start eating, they still prefer this type of food !!!
I have also observed children who are vegetarians by preference even if the family does not have this habit, they simply put aside the meat and choose the ones they prefer to eat.
They are very active babies
They are very active babies, very awake, no longer need to sleep so much and require a lot to interact with the mother. They take a lot of tit, very often (every hour and a half or two hours) and gain weight sometimes by 2 kilos in the first month of life!
Many times this demand exhausts new mothers, that is why we advise resting with the baby at the time he sleeps, and ask for help, neglecting the “NUCLEAR FAMILY” model (father / mother / son / children) and allow the family (grandmothers, aunts, etc.) relatives or friends to help you in the upbringing.
There is a very strong energy requirement on the part of these babies, it is part of their food, and they are usually babies with a highly developed immune system and are very healthy when mothers are dedicated to them. These babies know what they need, and they ask for it !!! They need to be very much in arms, touched, pampered, they sleep with their parents or with their mother, since many times the parents move for a while to another bed to be able to sleep all more comfortable.
They need to be very much in arms, touched, pampered, they sleep with their parents or with their mother.
We have always seen generational changes, and in wonderful when we are in a parenting group, where mothers and fathers share their experiences, as everyone's testimonies coincide !!!
It is very necessary to meet in these groups to realize the trend of these new babies, and realize that they are like that and we have to adapt to what they need.
Follow your intuition
Many times when I raised my children I met older people who advised me. They said to me: Do not have it so much in your arms because it gets used to it!, do not sleep with them because you do not take them out of bed anymore, they are tyrants, dictators, etc
I am grateful to be an eternal rebel and to have followed my instinct, I am grateful to have had my children very much in my arms, to have given them a lot of tits, until more than 2 years, to sleep with them until they were great, to have raised them in nature, to have dedicated my life to parenting and having chosen as a university, career and profession life with them, growing and learning together. I see that they are today very independent, self-taught, safe people, with valuable tools to live life! (El Bolson, 12/13/10; e-mail. )
Thank you Maria for sharing such a beautiful life experience!
As we see each time there are more and more people who testify to the magnificent changes that are manifesting more markedly in the new generations and who invite us in a way that cannot be immersed. with hope, expectation and a deep love, in the recognition of new strategies and ways of life that allow us to accompany and guide more assertively.
Contact:
Mar a Vergara, , El Bols n, Argentina.
Compilation: Ménica Betancur
If you wish to share a newsletter, article, pedagogical information, and / or life experience, please send it to: Monika Betancur, e-mail.
