midwifery

June 7, 2020

The Murder of George Floyd and Demonstrations Against Systemic Racism: Responses from the Integrative Community

The most gripping moment for me was quite private after my spouse suggested that we don our COVID masks and join some 5000 others at City Hall on day 6 of Seattle’s demonstrations against police violence against black people, and for massive systemic change. We were sitting on the curb during a break in the action. We were quite aware of how little we know and understand, even with the mentoring of a 24-year-old daughter who is hypersensitive to race issues. We leaned in close to each other as the mixed crowd of humans, nearer our daughter’s age than to our own, milled about. The course of our conversation led us to try to imagine needing to have had “the conversation” 15 or 20 years ago with our now 28 year old son, were we black, and he a young black man coming of age. That being his ritual welcome into adulthood.
August 1, 2018

Licensed Midwives Share Remarkable Modeling of a Profession’s Racial Justice Strategy

In 2012, at the first CPM Symposium, I was invited to speak on the interprofessional work of the Academic Collaborative for Integrative Care (the Collaborative). The Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) were celebrating a new era of collaboration with other childbirth professionals. It seemed a good time to feature the Collaborative, of which two of their affiliates were members.
July 10, 2018

3 Milestones for Integrative Health – in Academic Medicine, Naturopathic Medicine & Homebirth Midwifery

If one views “integrative health and medicine” as an organic movement, then its shape consists of the stories documenting its milestones and the work of its pioneers. Only the telling of these stories are less likely to be around a fire than around the modern substitute: the web. This article offers three slices of achievement. It involves multiple streams among those that flow together to support an integrative future: a milestone in academic medicine in the dominant school, for naturopathic medicine, and a changing of the guard for direct entry (homebirth) midwifery.