Knitting Midwives

Dear readers,

Of course I can’t go without devoting a blog to women. I hadn’t been in Slovenia for long, when I could already enjoy International Women’s Day (March 8). Here, this day is celebrated as a sort of Mother’s Day and comes with the tradition of giving flowers to a woman. I was surprised by my sweet colleague giving me a tulip, a flower that conveys comfort and warmth and is the symbolic flower of The Netherlands (my homecountry). I was just having a couple of tough days, so the gesture of the flower really moved me. Having those strong midwives around at the labour ward here, inspires me to stand my ground and know my worth. 

Knitting midwives
Strong women are often also patient women. Long (night)shifts inevitably come with periods where you can only be a patient guard. Slovenian midwives have their very own way of getting through these periods. Imagine my surprise when I first saw my colleagues resorting to… knitting! A couple of knitting midwives isn’t something you would easily find in a Belgian labour ward. However, my colleagues convinced me to give the knitting a try, as a good way of maintaining the dexterity a midwife needs. I leave it to you to imagine my clumsy tries in the beginning, but I have good hopes that I will further master the fine art of knitting.

Michel Odent

It has not been my only encounter with knitting midwives. They also pop up in the ideas of Michel Odent, the well known French obstetrician. According to Odent, many of the current (medical) practices surrounding birth are determined by culture and tradition and do not necessarily favor the women and children involved. He claims that these practices might affect the emotional state and stress level of pregnant women. This, he says, can have a negative influence on pregnancy, delivery, and even the mother-child bond and further development of the baby.

It comes as no surprise then, that Michel Odent pleads for change. He promotes the idea that pregnant and delivering women should basically be left in peace, as this would make the delivery easier. He is therefore firmly against males (doctors, but also the fathers) attending birth. Their attendance would only enhance the risk of stress, hormonal disbalance and hampering of the natural oxytocin flow. Instead of fostering that flow, we give women synthetic oxytocine without, claims Odent, properly understanding the possible long term consequences. He feels that ideally, the only one in the room besides the woman who is in labour should be a quiet midwife. To prevent her from instilling stress in the soon-to-be mother, she should be engaged in… knitting!

Recently, dr. Odent visited Ljubljana for a three day seminar at the University MedicaI Centre Ljubljana (UMCL) entitled ‘Childbirth in the scientific context of 2016’. I was invited to attend a day of his lectures by Petra Petročnik, who is the departmental Erasmus+ coordinator. Thanks to her efforts, I could even attend them for free.

The day was very well organized by, among others, Anita Prelec, who is the head midwife at the UMCL maternity unit and board member of the Nurses and Midwives Association of Slovenia and president of the professional section of midwifes. Since 2009, she is also a board member of the European Midwives Association. 

In his lectures, dr. Odent explored the contradictions he perceives between ‘tradition and cultural conditioning’ surrounding birth, and new scientific knowledge. Regardless of one’s own viewpoints, it was a thought provoking exercise, that inspires to really think about what we do as midwifes, and why.

Women in Slovenia

Slightly more than half of the people living in Slovenia is a woman. Should you happen to meet one of them and not know her name, your best guess would be to call her either ‘Marija’ or ‘Ana’, as they are the most common female names in the country. In 2014, Eva was the most common name given to baby girls.

In that year, 21,200 children were born in Slovenia. Women here have their first child at a mean age of 29.1 years (as a comparison: in The Netherlands this is 29.4 years and in Belgium 28.2). This mean age has risen considerably over the years (in 1994, it was 24.8 years). In 2015, the crude birth rate in Slovenia was 10.1 life births per 1000 people.

If the Slovenian mortality rate stays the same, the baby girls will on average live well into their eighties. Life expectancy of women in Slovenia is 83.7 years. Long live women! ;-) Women in Slovenia are also more satisfied with life than men. And many of them will probably receive some form of higher education. In 2014, 60% of the graduates were women. Also, approximately 4 out of 10 people with a PhD in the country are female. Quite a rise since 1906, when Marija Urbas was the first Slovene woman to obtain a doctorate!

All that glitters is not gold, however. Among other things, women in Slovenia still run a somewhat higher risk of ending up in poverty than men. This goes especially for women who are more than 65 years old or unemployed. Furthermore, there were over 1,600 victims of physical and/or sexual violence a year over the last years. Around 200 women a year reporting sexual violence in the broader sense. Judging by police data, women most often fall victim to domestic violence.