Well tomorrow in the "International Day Of The Midwife". It is not a biblical holiday or celebration, but organized by man kind to bring awareness to the profession and calling of midwifery.
Midwives have been serving women since the beginning of mans existence.
Midwives have been serving women since the beginning of mans existence.
Exodus 1:13-14 says:13 "And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: 14 And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour."
So GODS people were in bondage being used as slaves, and the king had heard of the promised coming of a MESSIAH from the people for the people-that would set the Hebrew people free. He wanted to try to avoid that from happening so he set a plan into motion. He thought if he had all the baby boys killed then this 'promised KING' would not be alive for the salvation of the people. What the king did not understand is that the salvation of the Hebrew people did not mean physical as much as for our souls. So the king spoke to the midwives who served the Hebrew women.
15 "And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah: 16 And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live."
The midwives were asked to kill the babies. If your a midwife of GOD/YHWH, if you have TRUE fear of the one true GOD/YHWH then you can not possibly kill a newborn baby!
17 "But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive. 18 And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive?"
Midwives from as far back as this time in history have been called before the authorities for what they do or do not do. In this situation it was for failure to obey the king of the land, who had ordered the midwives to do something that could be considered (in my opinion) to be the law-issued by a king to the midwives- A LAW- to kill which the midwives refused to do.
19 "And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them."
Now, you might say (and some have said this) that the women really were hard workers as slaves thus they did deliver easier. We midwives know that those who are in good shape, often deliver a bit easier. But I personally have seen women who in today's standards would not be considered to be in 'good shape' deliver even faster so I am not sure that this is true. If it is,I say, good. If that is what really happened then GOD/YHWH worked it out so that the midwives had a 'way out' from the order/law that the king had issued to them.
I have also heard some say that the midwives lied. That there was no way that every boy baby delivered -the midwives missed the delivery for. Well, I tend to agree with this version. I do believe they lied. Many christians have a real hard time with this theory, but remember: they lied to an ungodly leader, not to GOD/YHWH.
As a midwife, there is no way that they could miss that many births.
IF that was true, I bet that the women would probably stop calling them to their births,the women would be unable to trust that they would even be of assistance to them. Eventually the midwives would not be of any service because the women would stop calling them to their births, and we do not see that in scripture-so I do not believe this to be true.
Another theory is that the Hebrew people knew of the kings order/law issued to the midwives and thus did not call for the midwives until they were about ready to deliver so that they would happen to deliver just prior to the midwives arrival. Well, this sounds good, it cold be what happened to some, but most women do not want to have an unattended birth. I could believe this to be true except for that. Also due to the culture beliefs (if you are Jewish and know different please contact me and let me know) but my understanding of birth, it was attended by women, not men, due to 'being clean and unclean'.
No matter the reason, GOD dealt with the midwives in a positive way. HE blessed the people they served, again-HE blessed the people they served...
interesting....
20 Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty.
" And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?" Deuteronomy 10:12-13
21 And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses. 22 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.
Because the midwives refused to do what the king ordered them to do-he required his people to do the job of killing the baby boys...
So tomorrow is the day of the midwife. What can you do?
Thank your midwife. Thank your doula. Thank your child birth instructor. Thank your care provider and supporter of your birth.
Thank your midwife. Thank your doula. Thank your child birth instructor. Thank your care provider and supporter of your birth.
Support the ministry of midwives, contact your state legislator and representative and tell them you want your state to support access to the Certified Professional Midwife and the Certified Nurse Midwife for out of hospital births. Remember, this is about your freedom, your freedom to choose not only where you give birth but about who attends your birth. If your freedom to birth as you want to, with who you want to attend your birth is not 'allowed' then your other basic freedoms are also in jeopardy of being removed from you...
The government can not , I repeat, can not be trusted with the decisions for you and your family...So get involved and make a difference!
http://www.internationalmidwives.org/CongressesEvents/InternationalDayoftheMidwife/tabid/327/Default.aspxhttp://cfmidwifery.org/index.aspx
http://mana.org/response.html This is worth the reading again, even though it is a year old-it is a letter from the president of MANA...
