My Journey to Become a Midwife
by Alejandra Lozano
Hi! I’m Alejandra Lozano, a Midwife in continuous learning and development. My history has been long and will continue, today I want to share a little bit of it…
The love for midwifery started when I got pregnant and I met the midwives who would attend the birth of my son Mariano, who is 8 years old today. As soon as I met the first midwife I had ever seen in my entire life, I felt a deep admiration and inspiration inside me that led me to forget about my birth for a few moments and strongly desire to be a Midwife, I wanted it so much that I said it out loud without thinking, that was the beginning of everything…
I accompanied the first birth as a doula, I quickly realized that my place was not in hospitals. I love being a Doula and it’s a job that I deeply honor, yet my heart has always belonged to midwifery and home births. Then my Midwife became my teacher, and when my son was 2 years old she started teaching me.
I was learning from her for 4 years, living in the city of Monterrey, Mexico, where we shared many births, laughter, incredible experiences, not a single obstetric emergency.
Each woman gave me a great learning and I improved my skills to attend prenatal consultations, massages and postpartum closings, I went from observing the births to attending them with my teacher by my side, accompanying me, guiding me with love. Then Griselda came, she decided to have a home birth after giving birth to her first child in a hospital, she felt mistreated there. With Griselda I connected deeply, each prenatal consultation we talked a lot, it was a very pleasant accompaniment. The day she was going to give birth I had dreams that were warning me of the progress of her delivery, I had a dream about a special initiation ritual that some people made for me and between conscious and deep dreams the moment of delivery came, I went straight to her house while my midwife teacher was going to pick up a cover for the water delivery tub. I got to her house and 5 minutes later she started to push, I felt super nervous because I was completely alone until I said to myself you are already here and you know what to do, you are a midwife, I helped her to relax and feel better I told her that everything was going to be fine, we walked together from the bathroom to her bedroom and as soon as she leaned back on the bed her baby came straight into my hands it was very fast and perfect. At that exact moment I felt like a midwife and understood the great responsibility of being one.
After a great season attending births in Monterrey I decided to move to Chiapas (2018) with the intention of understanding the ancestral knowledge of midwifery. It was a great and intense change, leaving everything behind to go with my son to another state where I hardly knew anyone, a super adventure. I started a Diploma in Midwifery and Obstetric Emergencies because although in my four years of learning I never had an emergency, it was necessary to know about it.
On this trip I joined a Midwives Movement, with almost 500 members from all over the state of Chiapas, called Nich Ixim (Flor de Maíz in Tzotzil) created and sustained mostly by Traditional Midwives. We have developed and received empowerment workshops, in Spanish, Tzotzil and Tzeltal, also to comprehend the rights and laws that protect us as midwives. We have been collecting information about the care work offered by midwives to generate our own statistics, in order to make visible the work we do. In all the deliveries attended, there is no record of a single maternal death. midwifery saves lives even if the health system does not recognize it.
I also started working with a Traditional Midwife who I really appreciate, Doña Caridad is a very very strong, confident woman, She says that I teach her but I tell her of course not, that she knows much more than I do and then we laugh.
Doña Caridad has a small land, her dream is to build a beautiful maternity center to take care of women and their babies. She is a warrior woman and she has taught me a lot, every time we go out it is an adventure, I have to leave my house with time available because I never know what will happen…
My dream is to be able to offer quality care at a very low cost, accessible to all, also to help Doña Caridad with her center. Every woman deserves to live a positive and pleasant, orgasmic birth experience!!
When you share time with traditional midwives and medics, you realize that the ancestral knowledge is in every conversation, laugh, joy, even in the food and coffee that we had the opportunity to enjoy together. I’m so lucky and grateful to be here, the story will continue…
If you want to become a midwife just remember: patience is the key – and never forget to enjoy the road!
Thank you Ale for sharing your journey! Ale recently shared her birth story with us as well...
“El nacimiento de Mariano, el día que pari mi cuerpo.
Desde el momento en que supe que estaba embarazada todo mi pensamiento se fue a investigar el proceso, los cambios que sucederían, el desarrollo de mi bebé y el parto, lo que mas me intrigaba era el tema de la epidural, le tenia una especie de terror a esa intervención… no había a quien preguntarle mas que a mi mamá que decía que no era para tanto, seguí investigando hasta que encontré la opción del parto en agua en Monterrey, Nuevo León, México, lo que me llevo a encontrar cursos de preparación para el parto (me sirvieron muchísimo) y fue donde encontré a mi partera, en ese momento mi vida cambio totalmente, estaba decidida a tener un parto en casa (y a convertirme en partera), no había otra opción posible en mi cabeza, así tendría que ser, a costa de lo que fuera”
Alejandra Lozano, LCCE, Midwife
Orgasmic Birth Community Manager
Combining ancestral knowledge from the ancient and traditional midwives of México and Latin America with the most up-to-date scientific evidence to find a balance in the needs of today’s women and to keep the traditional medicine alive.
Her personal interest is to offer quality midwifery services at low costs so every woman can have the same opportunities, always working as a team with other Midwives and health providers.
You can donate to the movement via paypal.