(The birth of MANA-->) A month later, Fran Ventre and I meet at the Boston airport and fly to Kentucky together. I am excited, but I have never in my life met anyone who talks more nonstop than Fran, except for maybe my cousin Al. She talks the entire flight. Holy Yenta! This woman can go on. She pauses to take a breath, I start to interject, and she’s already a full sentence ahead of me. But what Fran is telling me is informative, full of insider gossip, dark secrets and revelations. Feeling like a rube, I drink vinegary airplane wine and listen carefully to her stories. I learn who all the important players are. For some reason, I know without a doubt, that what is about to happen will have far-reaching historical significance. Our meeting is scheduled during the ACNM’s annual convention, so the hotel in Lexington is teeming with midwives. It has an electrically charged atmosphere similar to the El Paso conference…except these women are more well-heeled. Standing out in the crowd is Ina May Gaskin, one of my folk heroines. She is pulling a cart loaded with her groundbreaking book of 1975, Spiritual Midwifery. She looks exactly how I imagined; a long graying braid, colorful Guatemalan clothes and intelligent blue eyes. I am a bit star-struck and tongue-tied but she is just normally friendly and seems genuinely interested in me as well. I relax and feel comfortable and accepted. I am surprised at how many women I already know from the trade. The political networking begins immediately. I make signs announcing the meeting in our hotel room to assess how much interest there might be for an “umbrella organization” to unite all midwives. We really have no idea how this idea is going to be received, especially here. Using some of the guerilla tactics I learned from anti-war demonstrating in the 60’s, I post signs in elevators, in hallways, in the lobby, introducing the concept of the “New AMA”, which is what we call ourselves originally. This is Ina May’s twisted idea of a joke, “The American Midwives Alliance”. We hope a few women will be curious and will attend our formative meeting. As it happens, our room is packed and midwives are crammed in the doorway and down the hall, straining to hear what we have to say. I am delirious. There are probably close to a hundred midwives thronging in enthusiastic support. It seems to me that most are younger midwives, a lot still students. Perhaps because of this, they still have a certain idealism, a naiveté. But they all are craving more freedom and autonomy in their work. (...to be continued) ~ from LADYS HANDS, LIONS HEART, A MIDWIFES SAGA, Bad Beaver Publishing, 2010
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 12:13:16 +0000
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