By Stew Bittman, D.C.
I just returned from the ICA Membership Convention in San Francisco, and it was a bit eerie. Not only was the crowd small and the energy akin to a wake, there was hardly anyone there that I knew! Very strange. I’m glad I went, though. I got my 12 hours! I got to hang out with some of my best friends. And Bill Esteb said something that has been echoing through the recesses of my consciousness ever since.
He said that we as chiropractors should be “the midwives for the ‘person’s’ (my word – he said ‘patient’s’) self-awareness”. I really like that. His point was that instead of ridiculing, stomping upon, or totally ignoring the person’s story, and subsequently cramming our story down his or her throat, we should first of all honor their story (it being the reason they are there in our office), and then help to “birth” an awareness of the fallibility of their story by asking them questions.
Simply by forcing them to articulate their story, something they probably have never done, often is enough to open them up to some other way of looking at things. I can see the truth in that because it is exactly what happened to me. And through the many levels and the many changes that have occurred since my self-awareness was first birthed, I now consider “midwife” to be as accurate a title for my role in life as anything else. The parallels between midwifery and chiropractic are many, from the opposition both have endured to the subsequent legislation and medicalization of both.
Both, in their principle, rely on nature. Both, in their principle, maximize the probability of the natural plan to unfold. Both, in their principle, are there to facilitate rather than to intervene. Both, in their principle, are not responsible for the success of their facilitation, that responsibility lying with the person. Both, in their practice, have to a large degree abandoned their principle. Both, in their politics, are eager to cling to the apron strings of medicine, to suckle at the breast of the mighty insurance dollar, and to be accepted by a world that becomes sicker with the passing hours.
Having just watched a video of hospital births, put out By Jeanne Ohm, D.C., and nearly losing my lunch, I have a clearer than ever understanding of the horrible impact of birth trauma on our world. There has never been a more critical time for both professions to remember their own principles. What would the world be like if the principle of midwifery was applied to childbirth, and then the principle of chiropractic was applied to the rest of life’s transitions? What are we other than midwives; helping birth people’s Innate gifts, their destinies, their hopes and fears and pain, their stale belief systems that no longer serve, their self-awareness, and then loving and supporting them through the process?
What are we other than midwives; providing a safe container within which people can do the work necessary to express God’s plan? What are we other than midwives; holding the space for what has already been uniquely, magnificently, and Intelligently designed? Yes, I am a midwife. For Innate. My work on myself continues to birth the Innate perfection within me. And my work in serving others births more Light into the world.
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Email us if you would like to purchase Jeanne Ohm’s 10 minute hospital birth video, it is very powerful. The cost is $150 plus s/h.
Don’t settle for small crowds at your chiropractic event, promote them on Planet Chiropractic!
planetc1.com-news @ 5:50 am | Article ID: 983800227
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