Sunday Morning ~ Midwives!

Nnzimbe saidyra kutalika koma kutsemekera. ~ The sugar cane is not eaten because it is long, but because it is sweet.

~ Chewa proverb 

May 19, 2019

Hi Everyone,

I’m at my national midwifery meeting, this year in Washington D.C. and am preparing my talk for tomorrow. Well, I didn’t wait until this last minute to prepare it, but I am refining it. I’m nervous, in part because of the public lashing I took at the last conference, and partly because there is so much talent and energy at this conference it’s hard not to compare yourself. It’s humbling. I am trying very hard to be conscious of all the ways this can be interpreted as white privilege, what I should say to acknowledge that, how much of an introduction I should give into my sexual preferences, gender identity, and race? How do I gauge how much time each slide will take? What if no one asks questions? How do I present all the information within the time allowed and not have it sound like a shopping list? All of this kept me awake last night and resulted in oversleeping this morning. I missed early yoga. I’m now in a rush to get showered and get to my first education session, then to the exhibit hall to set up the table to recruit midwives for SEED.  It’s a bit frenetic on top of being in conditioned air and having only carbs available to eat. Funny that we should have a conference focused on making women healthier in such an environment. Six fifty for a bottle of water? Really? 

Tomorrow we go to Capitol Hill to lobby our congress people on issues affecting women and midwives; there’s lots to do there in the twenty minutes we’re given, so I need to review the facts about bills introduced and needing sponsors and figure out how to be brief.  We go on busses, over 500 of us, to make our presence known and hopefully get someone to listen and understand what we do and how we strive for reproductive justice. 

So, short and sweet and full of stuff to make us strong. Here we go.

Love to all,

Linda