Counter Culture

As I was reading a birth story today I was impressed by just how hard it can be to chose the unpopular path. I have always been okay with and even enjoyed being different, so once I was converted, it was like anything else--shrug off or maintain awkward truce with people who didn't like it, and surround myself with people who are supportive. But now I see that this is a real struggle for many women: the awkward truce, the having to justify ourselves, rocking the boat. Even though our LDS culture is very different from the world, and we're used to being a little weird, it's more difficult when doing things that are counter even in our own LDS culture, such as natural birth or home birth. This is very sad. Especially when I think of what our ancestors must think as they watch us--how much effort it is to now turn back to the wisdom of the past. But I also know that they are assisting in this important work.

I was telling a friend today in an email that the situation of birthing in our country reminds me of public transportation in Los Angeles. You may not know this, but Los Angeles once had an amazing public transportation system. It was better than New York or Paris--or so the old-timers tell me. (You could get from USC area to a dance club in Venice in less than 20 minutes on two trolleys.) But around the 1930s or 40's when GM and the big automakers started to make secret combinations with everyone, the city literally ripped up all the tracks. Now Los Angeles has so far to go in area of public transit. It is one of the most difficult cities to get around in without a car, and because of all the cars, it is also one of the most difficult cities to get around in. Undoing all the damage of years of poor urban planning is proving near impossible. Though they have added subway lines through parts of Hollywood, Downtown, Pasadena and other areas, they have yet to reach the ocean or the airport (the two most important destinations, if you ask me--but what do I know). They were supposed to reach Culver city by May 2009, but politics and different agendas keep slowing things down.

I think it is the same with the business of birth. Getting America back to basics it once knew is not going to be easy with the college of obstetrics, hospitals, anesthesiologists, politicians, insurance companies and everyone else in the mix. But the one thing that we have as Mormon women, is a community that is better mobilized than any other community of women. Maybe it is the organization. Maybe it's God. However it works, it works.

And it is becoming very clear to me as I receive more and more communications from women that Heavenly Father wants to get back to the way he intended it. Here is a small excerpt from the birth story of another natural birthing mama, Lani, who is fast becoming a good friend of mine.

"... I had the strong impression that God is extremely saddened by the way many women are treated as they give birth in highly medicalized settings. And I also had the impression that He is so pleased when women give birth as He intended them to--free and empowered."

I have been thinking about putting together a childbirth education class that would be basically free or "by donation" to LDS couples. All the money donated would be used to train more LDS childbirth educators. There is a funny thing about inspiration--if it is really God's work, then he doesn't just inspire one person to do something. There are probably hundreds of other people receiving similar inspiration, and being prepared or mobilized to be at the right place at the right time to bring to pass his work. And it is becoming evident to me from the correspondence I am getting, that this is happening. Hooray for organization. It's so exciting. I started this journey hoping to change just one woman's birth experience, but God has bigger plans. He sometimes doesn't tell me them until 10 o'clock the night before, but I'll keep you all updated.