This semester, the last of my college career, I had the incredible opportunity of being able to shadow a midwife in Canadaigua. I say a midwife, but really it’s two midwives, a whole bunch of nurse practitioners and an OB/GYN (http://www.canandaiguamedical.com/obstetrics_gynecology.html) who have let me follow around whichever one has something interesting is going on. I originally pursued the opportunity because while I have felt since I was a teenager that midwifery was the career path I wanted to follow, I had never had any kind of first hand experience. I had no idea what the day to day life of a midwife consisted of and thought it would be prudent to figure out whether I was still excited about the prospect of a career in that field after experiencing it in a quotidian kind of way.
What I found immediately—and to my great relief—was that I have never been more excited about my plans to become a CNM. Towards the end of my first day of shadowing, my midwife looked across her desk at me as we were waiting for her next patient and said, “Sorry it’s kind of boring around here today.” This interrupted the cacophony of joyful fireworks that were shooting around my head about how excited I was and how this had been more wonderful that I ever expected. All I could manage by way of a response was a wide-eyed, enthusiastic “No!”
My interest in midwifery is why I decided to take women’s studies courses in the first place, and now I find that women’s studies has actually prepared me for opportunities like shadowing. It was difficult to find an shadowing opportunity with a midwife in this area, and it’s certainly not something that very many HWS students ask for. I’m not sure that I would have been able to pursue it as effectively as I would have without experience in women’s studies because my nature is to try my hardest not to be a bother to everyone (a strategy that would certainly have led to never having any kind of shadowing experience). women’s studies has drawn my attention to the fact that what I would consider “being a bother” is more often just being assertive or even simply advocating for myself. Far from crossing boundaries of acceptability, this is often the only way to create opportunities for myself. My women’s studies background has also made me more comfortable asking questions while I’m shadowing, and about being perseverant when I encounter people who are less than cooperative in providing me with necessary information.
In short, my shadowing experience has been valuable to me not only in terms of finding people who are knowledgeable in the field who will answer my questions, determining whether can I actually see myself practicing midwifery on a practical level, and seeing INCREDIBLY awesome midwifey stuff, but also because it made me more profoundly aware than ever of how women’s studies doesn’t just make me angry at pop music and commercials for household cleaning products—it gives me the skillset and awareness I need to make good things happen for myself.
What I found immediately—and to my great relief—was that I have never been more excited about my plans to become a CNM. Towards the end of my first day of shadowing, my midwife looked across her desk at me as we were waiting for her next patient and said, “Sorry it’s kind of boring around here today.” This interrupted the cacophony of joyful fireworks that were shooting around my head about how excited I was and how this had been more wonderful that I ever expected. All I could manage by way of a response was a wide-eyed, enthusiastic “No!”
My interest in midwifery is why I decided to take women’s studies courses in the first place, and now I find that women’s studies has actually prepared me for opportunities like shadowing. It was difficult to find an shadowing opportunity with a midwife in this area, and it’s certainly not something that very many HWS students ask for. I’m not sure that I would have been able to pursue it as effectively as I would have without experience in women’s studies because my nature is to try my hardest not to be a bother to everyone (a strategy that would certainly have led to never having any kind of shadowing experience). women’s studies has drawn my attention to the fact that what I would consider “being a bother” is more often just being assertive or even simply advocating for myself. Far from crossing boundaries of acceptability, this is often the only way to create opportunities for myself. My women’s studies background has also made me more comfortable asking questions while I’m shadowing, and about being perseverant when I encounter people who are less than cooperative in providing me with necessary information.
In short, my shadowing experience has been valuable to me not only in terms of finding people who are knowledgeable in the field who will answer my questions, determining whether can I actually see myself practicing midwifery on a practical level, and seeing INCREDIBLY awesome midwifey stuff, but also because it made me more profoundly aware than ever of how women’s studies doesn’t just make me angry at pop music and commercials for household cleaning products—it gives me the skillset and awareness I need to make good things happen for myself.