Women's rights are human rights

My Speech students are giving their final speeches of the semester this week. Their assignment was to visit this site and present one of these great American speeches. While I was previewing the speeches that the students chose, I was reminded of one of my very favorite speeches, given by then-First Lady Hillary Clinton at a United Nations' Women's Conference in Beijing:



The message is still so relevant today, a fact which is simultaneously uplifting and discouraging.

Mad for Midwives

Midwives: they're not just for pregnant women anymore. Without getting into too much detail for my male and/or squeamish readers, I have to share how much I loved my recent well-woman visit at a Baltimore-area midwife.

During my last such visit with a doctor, I was rushed in and out and had to coax her to stay in the room for a few extra minutes so I could ask some questions (and the less said about where and how she ordered lunch that day, the better).

During my time with my midwife, however, I didn't feel like a patient, a number or a billable hour. I felt like a real, unique person who had questions, concerns and--apparently--a very healthy uterus. In all my years of visits to doctors, no one ever told me that my body was healthy. My midwife told me that my body was healthy and normal, giving me not only reassurance, but also dignity.

Forget all the statistics and research about how beneficial midwives can be for women, babies and families. Our health is about choosing the care that will make us comfortable and secure. For many women, that means seeing a doctor. For me, that now means seeing a midwife.

It wasn't "just stress"

There was a rather distressing article in the "Health" section of this morning's Washington Post. For nearly two years, Karima Hijane, a mother in her early thirties, lived with menopause-like symptoms, accompanied by migraines and aching bones. She went from doctor to doctor, specialist to specialist, but no one could give her an accurate diagnosis. Doctors told her to exercise more or that her symptoms were "just stress." When the doctors and specialists didn't see an easy answer, they threw up their hands. Karima Hijane was later diagnosed with Primary Ovarian Insufficiency, a rare--but certainly diagnosable--disease.

I know this is a common story in the medical profession--patient goes from doctor to doctor for years with little or no explanation--but it seems especially true with women's health issues. The medical system in our country has hijacked so many of the choices that were once freely available to us: the right to see a doctor, midwife, PA, Nurse Practioner, you name it for our well-woman visits; the right to choose how and when we decide to become pregnant; the right to choose how and where to deliver our children. From doctors and nurses who criticize midwives and doulas, to well-meaning colleagues who ask, "So when will you start having kids?" the most sacred decisions in our lives are no longer solely ours. Stories like Karima Hijane's are the all-too-familiar byproduct.

Since her diagnosis, Karima Hijane has become the President/Treasurer of Rachel's Well, a nonprofit dedicated to the improvement of women's health by "raising awareness, removing barriers to care, and stimulating research."