Guerrilla Midwife documentary trailer (2009)

“In every country on this planet, there is a WAR being fought to gain an asset more precious than gold or oil. The battlefield is a woman’s body when she is most vulnerable and in need of protection… when she is giving BIRTH. In this war we stand to loose our humanity. At this pivotal moment of life individuals develop either an intact or impaired capacity to love. Protecting our capacity to love is essential to saving our planet. The inappropriate use of technology during birth has disempowered women, harmed the bonding process between mother and child, and has sabotaged breast-feeding and our essential human right to peace. At the heart of this war, perpetuated by the agendas of ‘big business’ and by our misunderstanding of the physiology of birth, we find the guardian of natural childbirth – the midwife.”

—————————————

This is a documentary about a woman who inspires me: Robin Lim, an American midwife who is reinventing the protocols for pregnancy and promoting holistic childbirth. I was introduced to her last December when I was watching the award ceremony for CNN’s Hero of the Year, in which she won the award. (You can watch her acceptance speech here.) As I was watching her speak about her cause I felt in my being a sense of empowerment, because she, a midwife—a woman who practiced a tradition long ostracized by patriarchal modern medicine—and her work was finally recognized by the world. To me, she is a beam of hope for women seeking to restore their faith in their own natural power to give birth.