Tantamount to Freedom
© Michelle Sexton ND 2013
Thus far in my lifetime, I have become involved in two different movements that I realized have several common threads. The first movement for me was the becoming a midwife and participating in homebirth. This “becoming” was partially as a result of my own hospital surgical birth and the desire to be more self-empowered, and partially to help other women realize the same. (Later it had nothing to do with this for me, but was solely about nonviolence for the new arrivals!)The second movement was natural health and herbal medicine (which has gone hand-in-hand with homebirth) and subsequently led me to become a naturopathic doctor and researcher of Cannabis as medicine. One thing common to both of these interests is that they used to be considered “hippy”, counterculture phenomenon and today they have both become more mainstream. And in the end, both of these choices are tantamount to freedom!
Here are what I see to be a few elemental similarities between homebirth and Cannabis as medicine:
1) Affordability- there is a relative lowcost for both homebirth and Cannabis as medicine compared to hopsital/pharmaceuticals and this applies whether or not one has access to healthcare insurance.
2) Risk/benefit ratio- there is a relative measure of safety at a homebirth that is due to the lace of hospital intervention. Likewise, there can be a risk reduction when discountinuing a number of pharmaceutical drugs in favor of using Cannabis. The effects of a treatment that produce a negative outcome are called “iatrogenic”, so in alignment with the idea of “not messing with Mother Nature” both homebirth and Cannabis and medicine are more aligned with this value;
3) Effectiveness- if measured by empowerment, quality of life and outcome, both homebirth and Cannabis as medicine have these in common.
To describe a couple of other abstruse analogies between these two movements, consider both of these practices from a more anthropological perspective. The first method common to both homebirth and medical Cannabis is the attempt to dismantle hegemonic authority. What does this mean?? This means that people are questioning what the perceived “authorities” attempt at domination over others by forcing certain prescribed rituals or medicine.
The medicalization of childbirth and the medicalization of health have parallels in the emergence of “Western” medicine. Both homebirth and alternative health and healing could be considered as ethical challenges to the status quo. However, contemporary homebirthers and medical Cannabis users (or adult users) are no longer necessarily “radicals” or “extremists” rather just educated and empowered people living their lives as they see fit.
Second, both groups could be considered to be engaged in a more ritualistic form of living, of bringing meaning to and carefully considering how to engage: the body, the spirit, the soul.
Third, the acts of ‘giving’ birth and choosing/preparing/titrating/ one’s own medicine bring meaning and empowerment to the individual. In this sense, they could both be considered to be “manipulated rituals of technocratic subversion”.
The real common thread between these two involvements of mine is the people! Both movements are filled with folks that may have at one time been considered ‘counterculture’. But wait, just because wanting to participate fully in the birth of your child, you’re not counterculture anymore! And wait, if you think you are going to be all culturally deviant by using Cannabis for pain relief, or to treat irritable bowel syndrome, or depression or just to alter your consciousness, you’re not! The dominant values and behavior of society are changing! If you think you could have either homebirth or medical Cannabis (or other natural medicine) in a system of collaboration and mutual respect, you can!
You are now just a member of the emerging culture, deliberately peeling away at the fiction of the medicalization of LIFE. Our health and our life, how we live and how we die, do not need legitimacy in political and medical theaters. To territorialize how we are born, how we die, and how we live the ‘dash’ in between our date of birth and date of death inscribed on a tombstone (or urn!) is tantamount to freedom!