From the Desk of ... Karen Salt.

Coordinator for Diversity CCE, Doula, Perinatal Health Educator, Sociology Instructor

Evolution at What Price?

I am an opinionated, empowered female who has reached full adulthood in the 1990s. I am married, with three children and a loving husband.

My background is one of working class trauma and stability as education and books became my path to freedom. As rocky as my educational journey has been, as a childbirth educator and sociology instructor, I now have the best of both worlds. I am in touch and in tune with Medicaid Managed Care eligible women and insurance carrying homebirthers, and intimately grappling with race and ethnic issues in my Race and Ethnic Relations class.

But I feel as if something is wrong. And I want to be clear what it is I am talking about. You see, my life is not wrong, and neither is my profession. What's wrong seems to be this small but growing, competitive, overworked mentality that has entered into the field of birth. What do I mean? We overstretch, over-commit, abuse, and ignore ourselves for the greater good of others. The next person.

We also, simultaneously, evaluatE: ourselves by the sheer number of conferences, organizations, and certification programs we belong to or attend meetings of, as if, at the end of the day, our clients will be looking at our credentials and not our hearts.

So, I guess what's wrong is this strange atmosphere that I see suffocating the workers in the field of birth with its bureaucracy and power trips, stifling the creative energy of every woman involved.

My friends, as a circle of women aiding each other, we need everyone--the stay-at-home moms, the moms who make slings, the moms who make meals for new parents, the doulas and labor assistants, the childbirth educators, the midwives, and occasionally the doctors to create a true empowerment zone committed to sustaining birthing women and their families. So many of us have this as our goal that it seems ludicrous to preach to the choir, but I feel that the suffocation that I mentioned before may be taking its toll on all of us overdone, over-dealt women. That's why we have to see the benefits and need of all of us, no matter what we call ourselves, or what program or study we've done--if any.

You know, as I write this I realize that I already feel much better. Perhaps I just needed to share my fears with a few friends.

Karen Salt Coordinator for Diversity CCE, Doula, Perinatal Health Educator, Sociology Instructor

Karen can be reached at her new address and phone number: 520-214-8244; 7140 West Suzette Lane, Flagstaff, Arizona, 86001.