BirthKeeper

The term doula means "handmaiden" and as such I prefer the term birth servant to doula because technically a doula could be an attendant for anything. "Birth servant" more accurately sums up what it is I see as my role as a doula: to serve women at birth, families who are preparing for a birth, and families in the period after birth. Recently I also find myself more and more drawn to the term "birthkeeper".

Initially I was not a fan of the term "birthkeeper" because it made me imagine birth being put in a cage and guarded by some self-appointed authority. But I misunderstood what it meant. A birth keeper does not cage or tame birth, rather she protects normal birth from adversaries and attackers.

Jeannine Parvati Baker coined the term "birthkeeper", which was a marriage between the terms "birth" and "earth keeper". She wrote:

EarthKeeper is a Native American word for Eco-activists as well as holders of the sacred Earth-based wisdoms. Midwives can be the same, yet the term "Midwife" has been usurped by MEDwives and other medically-based perinatal professionals. At this point in time on Turtle Island, midwifery is an endangered species. Too many midwives have identified with the oppressor, learned to speak the conquerers language, and otherwise been vanquished to emerge as obstetrically-trained "Medwives". In other words, many Midwives have given up being guardians and keepers of natural birth at home, in order to survive as professionals.

...BIRTHKEEPER...

Healing Birth is Healing the Earth. (Parvati Baker)

Like Parvati Baker, I see honouring birth in its most pure, unhindered and natural state (and working to protect birth from intervention and interruption) as a very important part of the birth servant's role. I believe that in serving, honouring and protecting birth in this way, birthkeepers serve womankind by assisting them to realise their innate strength and power. They do this by nurturing the mother through the intensity of labour and providing her with the encouragement she might need if she begins to doubt herself.

There are doulas who rather than using their role to serve birth, enable the current anti-birth maternity system. These doulas understand their role to be supporting pregnant and birthing women's choices, regardless of what those choices might mean for birth, women, and babies. If this is what the world thinks a doula is: an enabler of any and every choice, then I am no doula, nor shall I ever be one. I don't believe all choices are equal, or that all choices are deserving of respect. I didn't go down this path out of a love for choice, rather a love for birth, women, and more specifically women's power in birth.

I don't believe that kind of "support all choices" doula is necessary at birth. Women have their friends, families and care providers to support them in making popular choices. What is lacking is a voice for normal birth and someone in the birth space never wavering in their faith in the birthing woman's body! What is needed now more than ever, with such high rates of unnecessary intervention in birth, is someone willing to "hold the space" - that is, give birth the time and the space to be whatever she needs to be, free from intervention and interruption, and someone to give the mother freedom to get on with the business of labour rather than having to negotiate with or rage against a system unwilling to sit on its hands.

It's quite common these days for people to confuse respect for a person with respect for a choice that person made. They are not the same thing. I believe it is thanks to our capitalist society that many people have grown so attached to the concept of "choice", indeed it is often worshiped. Those of us willing to dig a little deeper and critique choice are often received with a hostility that brings to mind the fury of another time, when someone dared to say the world was round.

Simply because someone chooses a certain choice does not mean they're choice is above critique. Making a choice does not equal being empowered, for example an individual can be held at gunpoint and told to choose between handing over their possessions or being murdered. They may make a choice, but it's hardly an empowered one! Likewise pregnant and birthing women make choices left, right and centre. But whether those choices are based on accurate information and for the right reasons depends on her preparation and the quality of care providers she has surrounded herself with (eg. making a choice out of fear or because someone else made that choice are not good reasons to committ to a particular birth option!).

I have no interest in supporting choices. I wish to support women, and that means assisting them in becoming informed and subsequently empowered. "Supporting" a woman in making choices based on fear and a lack of information or handing her power over to someone else is not supportive in my view! It is dishonest and patronising.

Protecting and serving normal unhindered birth protects and serves birthing women. A normal unhindered birth means mother and baby are safe from the risks and consequences of interventions that are not necessary 90% of the time and gives the mother the oppotunity to see and feel the great depths of her strength! This means that she begins mothering a new child filled with self-respect and confidence.

Related Pages:

Personal is Political

What Does "Support" Mean?

Interview with Birth Activist Janet Fraser

The Wisdom of Ani DiFranco

Your Childbirth Options


This post was a long time coming, initially inspired by the thoughts of Michelle The Herbwyfe. Upon first reading Michelle's thoughts on identifying as a birth keeper rather than a doula I really didn't understand where she was coming from. I couldn't see how the term "doula" was lacking but having more exposure to the western world's maternity systems I now see more clearly..