May 5th - International Day of the Midwife

In honour of this special day, my brainstorming “dream team” staff came up with the idea of hosting a “caminata” or march in downtown Oaxaca. Our city is notorious throughout Mexico for staging very inconvenient marches, blockades, and strikes, so we thought we may as well get in on a little of that action. (Just kidding!) No--instead of burning buses and blocking traffic, Casa Compasiva invited mums and dads with their babies in buggies or rebosos to join us for a fun (peaceful!) march. 

Together with Nueve Lunas—another local organization dedicated to training midwives and promoting natural births-- we all walked along starting from the Santo Domingo Cathedral to the zocalo (city square), convening at another cathedral, and then marching back. With babies in tow, decorated buggies, and even puppies, our whole group handed out flyers and balloons to the catchy tune of “Rumba de Rosa Zaragoza.” 

 

Some of us were sporting t-shirts that said, “Keep calm and call the midwife”, or “Keep calm; my mum is a midwife.” :) The husband of one of our former clients put together a fabulous promotional “radio spot” for us with about twenty minutes of facts promoting midwifery, and the husband of a current client played it through a solar-powered sound system on his bicycle as he rode along with us. 

 

All in all it was great fun, and great advertising for Casa Compasiva. The only downside was that two of our midwives were away at conferences that day, and our doc and the two other midwives were busy welcoming a new baby boy (Mateo!) into the world. They missed the whole thing, but I guess that's what it's all about, isn't it? Babies are seldom convenient but always a blessing! And good midwives are committed to sacrificially serving their birthing mamas--no matter what!

Lila Quezada