“L’dor vador,” from generation to generation… three times a day we say those words, followed by praises of G-d and His greatness. There is a strong feeling in Judaism that G-d has pervaded the lives of our people, from the Garden of Eden and the Exodus through the Holocaust, the formation of Israel, and beyond. There is a strong devotion to us being G-d’s people even today, and to passing that relationship to our children and our children’s children.
We just completed our first unit in midwifery school; a unit on midwifery history and a history of obstetrics in the US. It was depressing, maddening, disheartening, and allowed all of us to rant quite a bit. Money, power, politics, greed, sexism, classism… all of this went into the fall of the midwife and the rise of the doctor; the replacing of home with the hospital or birth center; the legalization of the nurse midwife, subordinate to doctors (as befits a woman’s place) and the ostracization of the independent and autonomous “lay” (traditional) midwife.
I wish I had something to say about it all, but the thoughts keep whirling in my head. I’m baffled how so many women gave away their choices , but I can see why. I’m baffled why smart, modern women keep giving away even more choices, but I can see why. I’m angered at midwives from all walks of life and training for not coming together because what is good for women is good for ALL midwives, and vice versa. I can see why, but I cannot agree that this was good for women or midwives.
Politics aside, I’m struck over and over with lay midwifery’s emphasis on the apprenticeship model. “To each one, teach one” is a mantra that is taken very seriously. As a Jew, I feel a special kinship with the midwives before me, Jewish or not. My education as an apprentice honors the generations of midwives who came before me, and I’m proud to be another link in an unbroken chain that goes back to Shifra and Puah perhaps.
“L’dor vador,” yet another link between the vocation that has chosen me and the religion that has chosen me. I hope that my work as a midwife and my life as a Jew honors all my ancestors. I look at my children and hope that someday I can pass my love of G-d and Torah to them. I look to the future and hope someday a woman will want to learn midwifery from me. The chain is still unbroken and it is our duty as the next generation to preserve it for those yet to come.
