Cork - Event Notice
Thursday January 01 1970

Screening 'Natural traditions' documentary about Community Midwives

cork | history and heritage | event notice

Monday September 20, 2010 16:20

by Bridget Sheeran - The Community Midwives Association

bridgetjim at eircom dot net

Documentary 'Natural Traditions' about the Midwife's role

This film documentary is about the traditional role of the midwife. It opens with a re-enactment of calling the midwife in a West Cork village where one of the first trained midwives lived and worked above Levis's pub (unchanged to this day). Her niece (now 101yrs old) still lives in the pub and recalls fathers coming in a pony and trap & waking the midwife.
Women tell stories and cine footage of the old days combine with beautiful scenery to depict the traditional role of the midwife.
University lecturers and midwife teachers are interviewed about what it might mean for midwives and women if the skills of the community midwife are wiped out altogether in Ireland (there are only 17 Independent midwives practising outside of hospitals).

email image of 'Natural Traditions' documentary

Please see attached poster for the screening of the documentary 'Natural Traditions' in Ballydehob, West Cork.
As a midwife and on behalf of the Community Midwives Association I would appreciate any help in getting the highest viewing numbers of this film on the day.
Watch out for its broadcast on Cork Community TV and your local community TV soon!
Also, The Community Midwives Association (c/o CMA, Bear Na Farraige, Ballinard, Baltimore, co. Cork) will have DVD copies for sale in the near future.
The documentary about the traditional role of the midwife opens with a re-enactment of calling the midwife in a West Cork village where one of the first trained midwives lived and worked above Levis's pub (unchanged to this day). Her niece (now 101yrs old) still lives in the pub and recalls fathers coming in a pony and trap & waking the midwife.
Women tell stories and cine footage of the old days combine with beautiful scenery to depict the traditional role of the midwife.

University lecturers and midwife teachers are interviewed about what it might mean for midwives and women if the skills of the community midwife are wiped out altogether in Ireland (there are only 17 Independent midwives practising outside of hospitals).

A few comments from the preview screening in July:
'Very well done! Inspiring!' student midwife
'What an amazing film! Well done and lets spread the word...' Midwife
'I found it very moving. Thank-you' local mother
' A very good concept and tradition worth preserving' Local man
'Enjoyed the film and would love to see the service continue - so needed' Local woman
'Thank-you. Very well put together, deserves support' Local man
' I agree that this is a tradition that should not be allowed to die out, well done!' Local woman
'Would have loved more - a fascinating film.' medical publisher

The screening on Oct 1st is also a fundraising event for the Community Midwives Association.
Bridget Sheeran
PRO & Membership Secretary CMA
Ballinard,
Baltimore
Cork
0868391987

Documentary film poster 'natural traditions' 1.15 Mb

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Comments (1 of 1)

homebirth and the loss of funding

by lucybmca

Tue Sep 21, 2010 21:35

I was newly back as a VSO volunteer from Kenya (well, not that newly, I'd already given birth in hospital to my firstborn son, because I wasn't allowed to give birth at home to a firstborn, given we were over 50 miles from Castlebar, the nearest town with a hospital) when I gave birth to my daughter. I took no medication for either birth because I'd lived in Africa and seen women give birth there in huts with only family members around. I liked the idea of being fit enough to be able to give birth then get up and do what needed to be done - not because I had to, but because I wanted to. I made a birthplan for my first and the hospital honoured it insofar as they could but I knew I wanted things to be more natural for the second. The nurses were brilliant but I screamed like a pig. It wasn't the hospital's fault. I was just in the wrong place. The second (actually, the third, I had a miscarriage in between) time I got pregnant, I found out about a brilliant service which allowed me and my husband to employ a midwife to look after us and come to the house for the birth. She did this. It was magic. She was called Christine and her husband was related to Hegel (of Marx and Hegel fame). She was so beautifully calming and sensible, giving gentle advice when we went to see her but not ruling anything out, that I thought, this is the ideal way of giving birth. Support, help, positive suggestion but no force and no drugs because they are not necessary. They ought not to be the norm but only the exception. I was lucky - and very, very self-responsible (in some ways... yoga, no smoking, lots of good food, etc) - but she was marvellous. I heard after we'd had Ella, a sweet and wonderful birth and a fabulous person to have around now - that Ireland had axed the service. I was devastated. I won't have any more babies - no tubes tied, I just think two's enough for me. No judgment for others. Just a decision based on the world population and universalisation principles. But to give the midwife service up is insane, really. It makes people take responsibility. It hands people responsibility. It frees up the system for emergencies. It recognises that pregnancy is not a disease. It gives dignity to women. It allows one to create an independent experience. It is therefore creative, economic, environmentally friendly, positive, technologically respectful but predominantly natural, and liberating in every respect. I was lucky. Everyone keeps reminding me how lucky I was, and am. And they are right. But I feel like whoever it was who said, yes, luck. I'm lucky. The harder I work, the luckier I get. Weird, innit??
Lucy... one letter missing. K

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Screening 'Natural traditions' documentary about Community Midwives

Comments (1 of 1)