"You Can Keep Your Label": a Poem by Mariah Strong

By Mariah Strong, PBC Board Member

This poem was inspired by the life-long work of my mother, who is my deepest inspiration and teacher. My mom has served families on Maui for over 40 years as their ally and midwife in autonomous birth. She has birthed her eight children at home, with fellow midwives, her friends and family, into water, or into her own hands. She has welcomed her grandchildren in the same way, with the same values. Her life work has been to hold space for birthing families and their choices, to educate and empower. She is a traditional midwife, and has held that role my whole life, inspiring me so deeply that I have chosen to walk this path by her side, as a midwife.

The words below came to me in an inspired uproar, when I was told my mother would not be "allowed" to call herself a midwife after four decades of holding that title. That the State of Hawai'i would be taking that ageless designation under a new law, and only let it remain for a certain few. In most cases, these few will be birth workers who have been privileged enough to afford midwifery school and to travel out of the state to complete it. Without an amendment, this law would make all others, the traditional and cultural midwives, the direct-entry midwives and even licensed midwives from certain states, unable to serve our families legally and strip them of the title "midwife.” If they continue to use the title, the position that their community and actions bestowed upon them, they would be legally persecuted. The option to choose our care providers and birth support team would be dramatically minimized, and in some areas extinguished. Once again, our bodily autonomy and medical choices would be taken away and put into the hands of the state.

We must preserve the wisdom and teaching of those that are outside of the white-washed education system.

We must stand up for the safety of the birth workers that have tirelessly served our families, helping us to not only birth our children, but honor and uphold our personal traditions and cultures.

Now is the time to fight for our access to culturally appropriate midwives.

The words below are my call to action.

To learn more and add your voice and experience to the cause, check out Hawaii Home Birth Collective.

“You can keep your label”

Midwife

A simple title

Defining a truly selfless act

A serving on the deepest level

To the reflection of soul in another’s eyes

Serving the highest power within

To birth anew

Midwife

The attempt at labeling something that is nameless

Something that is ageless

A song of sisterhood

that has been sung since the birth of this world

When the goddess birthed her daughters

Her midwife, the cosmos and the stars

The ember of that holy service kept alive in the hearts since time immemorial

Forever this song was stirred hands into service

The igniting of a dance that is performed by the side of a woman in labor

The stage of this dance never the same

A field, a cave, a home, a brightly lit room, the wake of a tsunami, the back of a car, a sterile room

Regardless, we hone the ember of service

Of care, devotion, love, strength

We welcome the new world

That is birthed with each babes first breath

Even after all this time

There are those that don’t understand

They believe a label

A word

Is what we are

Midwife

In your confusion you burn us

You jail us

You beat us

You label us and try to hinder our service by law

But you don’t know the song that is hummed in our bones

The power that makes us dance

swaying our hips

Moving our hands

The dance of birth

We will forever serve

We will always be there when we are needed

When in the cry of labor

In the dark of night

A sister needs us

We will be there

No matter the label

The word

The phrase

The terminology you try to

Force on us

Separating us

We stand tall

Midwives

Sisters

Mothers

Daughters

Regardless of name or label or law

We know our dance and will

Keep rhythm as one until the end of time