This last month has been full of joy at SF Birth Center. We have watched eight new babies come into this world and enjoyed shepherding their parents though the joys and trials of the first weeks of their new lives.  What a great job we have!

Unfortunately, we have not been able to stay completely in our happy bubble of baby and family. Sometimes, it has been a struggle to keep positive as we hear the news of the day. We have cried over the many young, beautiful spirits that were lost last week in Oakland. We have struggled with the violence and disrespect of the Native Americans striving to protect their sacred lands and water. 

Mostly, we have faced despair over the prospect of our country being led by a man who has often shown immense disrespect for women, people of color, the disabled, and the poor.  

We hesitate to bring politics into birth, but those of us who have been around birth for a long time, those of us who work with women, those of us who have watched women suffer under systemic misogyny KNOW that birth has always been political. Choosing to birth at the birth center is both an act of embracing the power of birth and rejecting the cultural norm of institutionalized birth.  

We are all about strong women here. We have seen women surprise themselves, seen them stunned by the power of their own bodies, shocked by their ability to handle the power of labor. We know women are strong, are smart, are nearly bottomless vessels of love and tolerance. 

We also know many women who have been scarred by the abuse of bullies, by hateful acts, by disrespect and by violence.  It is this disrespect, this national endorsement of bullying and misogyny, that has us gobsmacked. 

In order to face the upcoming years, we have chosen to focus on the power of women and the love they have for their children; and the long view, the knowledge that through the action of individual women, love will prevail.