Common Questions for the "Middle Wife"

As a traveling midwife I have the amazing privilege of seeing new countries and meeting new people on a regular basis.  I count this a tremendous blessing! I am always grateful for kind and caring new friends, who are full of curiosity regarding what I do.  I am reminded that midwifery can be a relatively new concept to many people.  Some of the common questions I get asked are:

Why do they call you guys “midwives”?

I had a sweet child ask me once if that meant I was the middle wife.  Although that would be a demanding job, nope, that’s not what being the midwife means.  I’ve also been asked, “Then where is your husband?”  Such questions lead me to believe that maybe a few things have been lost in translation.  Midwife literally means “with woman”.  In Old English wif means woman and mid means with.  So there you have it, us midwives are the ones who are “with woman” when it comes time to have that baby. 

But you’re so young…

While some people don’t even know what a midwife is, others who know sometimes have a few stereotypes in mind.  I’ve walked into more than one room and been asked, “You’re the midwife?  But you’re so young!”  I have not yet earned a full head of grey hair (Thankfully, as I am only 25) but yes indeed, I am the midwife.  Some of the world’s best midwives are grey haired women who carry more wisdom than I can imagine, but even they had to start somewhere.  As far as I’m concerned when it comes to being the best you can be at something, the sooner you start the better.

Did you just say, “Catch a baby?”

People often want to know how long I’ve been a midwife or how many birth’s I’ve attended.  Without thinking I casually reply, “ I caught my first baby about 4 years ago.”  Or “I’ve caught around 120 babies.”  This usually invokes a surprised response and some curiosity on why I would use the word “catch” when referring to assisting a woman at her birth.  Do we literally “catch” the babies?  Do they come flying out?  Do you need a fish net?  Have you ever dropped one?  I often let people ponder the mental image for a minute before I explain.  Midwives simply use this terminology over the more common word “deliver”, as it gives the ownership of the birth back to the mother.  Quite frankly I have never “delivered” a baby, that’s the mothers job and she gets the credit for it, not me.