Commitment & Sacrifice

Now that I am in the birthing arena, I realize that the life of a midwife is romanticized.

I have heard many women, who are not midwives talk about how they love babies and would love to be at a birth, how exciting it must be and so on and so forth.

Now I am not saying that I don’t love babies and that it’s not exciting to attend a birth. But a serious lesson that I am learning is the sacrifice that is involved in being a Midwife.

For example, when a birthing mother is 37 weeks pregnant, a midwife goes on-call until she delivers. A mother can go up until 42 weeks and some days, that is 5+ weeks of being on call.

Being on-call:

• Midwife stays within a certain radius of the mother so that she is ready to go when she goes into labor.

• Midwife drives her own car everywhere, even when married, such as to church, events, trips etc. just in case her birthing mother calls.

• Phone has to be charged, on loud and near her at all times, even while sleeping.

• Missing birthdays, weddings, family gatherings, etc.

Bottom line it means being available, 100% available, to drop everything no matter how important it is. That sounds crazy, right? Well, it is! Who in the world will miss out on valuable times, food, sleep, waste gas, etc. to be with a woman in labor? A woman committed to the call that God has for her life.

In chapel today, we learned about being committed, Jesus was committed to his call when He did not get down from the cross to save himself (see Matt 27:42). The choice was to get down from the cross and save himself or stay on the cross and die so he can save me. What makes me so special? What makes you so special? Sounds crazy right? How important was Jesus, in him we live move and have our being, by him all things consist? (Act 17:28, Col 1:17) Yet, he thought that his life was not as important as my eternal life. I am so grateful I have Jesus as an example.

This summer, the opportunity to go to the Philippines and assist in giving childbirth education classes and work at a free women’s clinic, has been opened to me. I would get practical skills experience from what I am learning in class before I head out on my internship. In the Philippines, there are 114 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. Compare that to the United States at 14 maternal deaths. The childbirth education classes and the free clinic will serve many women and may even have the potential to turn a life-threatening situation around because of early detection.

Sounds like an amazing opportunity, right? So what would prevent me from going?

Is it money? No, I do not have the financial resource to go right now but I know God would provide.

Is it my fear of flying? No, although I don’t like flying and its 1-day trip.

It’s because “I HAVE OTHER PLANS”! I have a wedding to attend just in the middle of the trip that would make going impossible. So I am presented with the choice, to go or not to go. So the challenge of being committed and sacrificing has come to me this day. I ask for your prayers the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak!