Midwife Quotes

• It's not just the making of babies, but the making of mothers that midwives see as the miracle of birth.

  Barbara Katz Rothman

  Mother, Baby, Miracle

  95 Copy quote

• The greatest privilege of a human life is to become a
  midwife to the awakening of the Soul in another person.

  Plato

  Soul, Awakening, Privilege

  114 Copy quote

• In all cultures, the midwife's place is on the threshold of life, where intense human emotions, fear, hope, longing, triumph, and incredible physical power-enable a new human being to emerge. Her vocation is unique.

  Sheila Kitzinger

  Life, Hope, Fear

  82 Copy quote

• Speak tenderly; let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don't only give your care, but give your heart as well.

  Mother Teresa

  Kindness, Eye, Heart

  585 Copy quote

• Birth is not only about making babies. Birth is about making mothers.

  Barbara Katz Rothman

  Mother, Baby, Pregnancy

  Barbara Katz Rothman (2016). “A Bun in the Oven: How the Food and Birth Movements Resist Industrialization”, p.48, NYU Press

  42 Copy quote

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• Every midwife knows
  that not until a mother’s womb
  softens from the pain of labor
  will a way unfold
  and the infant find that opening to be born.
  Oh friend!
  There is treasure in your heart,
  it is heavy with child.
  Listen.
  All the awakened ones,
  like trusted midwives are saying,
  'welcome this pain.
  It opens the dark passage of Grace.

  Rumi

  Mother, Children, Pain

  67 Copy quote

• I am just one of many many thousands of midwives, who are devoted to saving lives gently.

  Robin Lim

  Saving, Save A Life, Devoted

  "An Interview With Robin Lim | CNN Woman of The Year". Interview with Polly Armstrong, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

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• 

  Birth is about making mothers... strong, competent, capable mothers who trust themselves and know their inner strength

  Barbara Katz Rothman

  Mother, Strong, Pregnancy

  Barbara Katz Rothman (2016). “A Bun in the Oven: How the Food and Birth Movements Resist Industrialization”, p.48, NYU Press

  60 Copy quote

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• If we want to find safe alternatives to obstetrics, we must rediscover midwifery. To rediscover midwifery is the same as giving back childbirth to women. And imagine the future if surgical teams were at the service of the midwives and the women instead of controlling them.

  Michel Odent

  Inspiring, Children, Team

  1102 Copy quote

• When you destroy midwives, you also destroy a body of knowledge that is shared by women, that can’t be put together by a bunch of surgeons or a bunch of male obstetricians, because physiologically, birth doesn’t happen the same way around surgeons, medically trained doctors, as it does around sympathetic women.

  Ina May Gaskin

  Doctors, Together, Males

  46 Copy quote

• As a midwife, I am immersed in Oxytocin day and night.

  Robin Lim

  Night, Oxytocin, Day And Night

  "An Interview With Robin Lim | CNN Woman of The Year". Interview with Polly Armstrong, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

  27 Copy quote

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• A director must be a policeman, a midwife, a psychoanalyst, a sycophant and a bastard.

  Billy Wilder

  Film Directing, Sycophants, Directors

  73 Copy quote

• Whoever heard of a midwife as a literary heroine? Yet midwifery is the very stuff of drama. Every child is conceived either in love or lust, is born in pain, followed by joy or sometimes remorse. A midwife is in the thick of it, she sees it all.

  Jennifer Worth

  Children, Pain, Drama

  "Call the Midwife: The real life heroine behind major new TV series", www.mirror.co.uk. January 14, 2012.

  17 Copy quote

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• Birthing is the most profound initiation to spirituality a woman can have.

  Robin Lim

  Inspiring, Pregnancy, Profound

  55 Copy quote

• Midwives and doctors play a crucial role preventing unnecessary maternal deaths. They educate women about nutrition, health and family planning. And they step in when complications arise.

  Liya Kebede

  Doctors, Play, Roles

  "Why Protests Aren’t What we Should Remember About The G8" by Liya Kebede, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 13, 2010.

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• Pain is God's midwife, that helps some virtue into existence.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Pain, Helping, Virtue

  Henry Ward Beecher (1871). “Plymouth Pulpit: A Weekly Publication of Sermons Preached by Henry Ward Beecher”, p.372

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• We should work to guarantee that there is a midwife or health worker by every woman's side during childbirth.

  Liya Kebede

  Guarantees That, Health Workers, Sides

  "Why Protests Aren’t What we Should Remember About The G8" by Liya Kebede, www.huffingtonpost.com. July 13, 2010.

  16 Copy quote

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• After disasters, reproductive healthcare falls by the wayside. Yet babies continue to be born. When all infrastructure falls apart, when the hospitals and all their technological equipment are destroyed, midwives come in handy. They can help women give birth with or without electricity, running water, equipment - even shelter is optional. When babies are ready, they come.

  Robin Lim

  Running, Baby, Fall

  "An Interview With Robin Lim | CNN Woman of The Year". Interview with Polly Armstrong, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

  13 Copy quote

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• Like a midwife, I make my living bringing new babies into the world, except that mine are new advertising campaigns.

  David Ogilvy

  Baby, Campaigns, World

  David Ogilvy (1963). “Confessions of an advertising man”, Holiday House

  30 Copy quote

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• We are meant to midwife dreams for one another. Success occurs in clusters

  Julia Cameron

  Dream, Clusters

  Julia Cameron (2002). “The Artist's Way: 25th Anniversary Edition”, p.263, Penguin

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• One of the marks of a truly vigorous society is the ability to dispense with passion as a midwife of action - the ability to pass directly from thought to action.

  Eric Hoffer

  Passion, Action, Mark

  31 Copy quote

• If birth matters, midwives matter. In Europe, there are hospitals where the cesarean rate is less than 10%, and you'll find midwives in these hospitals, you'll see a lot less re-admissions with infections and complications, and you'll see a lot less injury to mothers.

  Ina May Gaskin

  Mother, Europe, Cesarean

  13 Copy quote

• For far too many, pregnancy and birth is still something that happens to them rather than something they set out consciously and joyfully to do themselves

  Sheila Kitzinger

  Pregnancy, Birth, Joyful

  Sheila Kitzinger (1990). “The Experience of Childbirth”, Viking Press

  67 Copy quote

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• The writer is the midwife of understanding.

  Arundhati Roy

  Understanding

  Source: progressive.org

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• When you are in hard labor, remember that the length of labor is usually proportional to the number of people around. Avoid the presence of anybody who might release adrenaline. The best situation I know for an easy birth is when there is nobody else around than an experienced, motherly and silent midwife who does not behave like a guide or an observer.

  Michel Odent

  Numbers, People, Silence

  467 Copy quote