The Sphincter Law
The sphincter law was affectionately named so by birth titan Ina May Gaskin, a midwife who has positively affected change in my birthing identity, that of countless other women and the American birth culture for decades. As wife of the leader of a progressive movement in the 60s, Gaskin and the other women of the group bound together to learn and trust their birthing bodies. Their bold choices led to the creation of a full midwifery service in which she and the other women were blessed to observe thousands of births. The midwives of “The Farm” in Tennessee have unearthed much ancient wisdom and translated it for modern times.
One such observation was that birthing mothers require privacy and safety in order to open up during labor in the same way we desire privacy to loosen and release our bowels, urinate, or any other private bodily function. When birth professionals mention “dilation” they are referring to the gradual opening of the cervix, a sphincter at the base of the uterus that is sealed tight until the body is ready to release baby. Such a tremendous release as giving birth requires an equally tremendous amount of privacy, which is something we sorely lack in our current hospital birth setting. However quiet the birth floor may be, countless unfamiliar attendees, student doctors and midwives, random staff, smells, sounds, etc. are introduced to a woman’s birth arena. She subconsciously has to integrate each of these unfamiliarities as waves of hormones course through her body begging her to release her conscious thought and surrender to her body’s natural functions. The degree to which a woman has to converse and think during labor is the degree to which she is out of tune with her birthing body and is working overtime to do her sacred work. This overwork manifests in her cervix sphincter not opening as smoothly as it should, or as it is tangentially understood, there is a “failure to progress”. Because of this lack of opening, many different interventions are introduced and the trajectory of her birth is irreversibly altered.
Ina May Gaskin has witnessed a reversal of dilation when mothers feel unsafe in unfamiliar environments or observed. I have also seen this happen in clients, especially those with a history of sexual abuse.
I look forward to a shift in understanding and trust of birth in America to the point where women’s birth environments and sphincters are honored. Women will begin to require that their births remain in familiar surroundings, provided their homes are safe (by their definition) and mother and baby are fit to do so (most of us are). In the cases where a mother is unable or doesn’t want to remain at home, her alternatives will become as accommodatingly close to the warmth of home as possible. I can see it, I hope you can too.
Much love always!
Zuri Sabir CD/B-P