1. hold tightly to the vision but loosely to the process
In birthwork, a healthy adult/baby dyad is the floor of what we expect. What we dream of is reproductive justice—a world in which people have the human right to bodily autonomy, to have children or not have children, and to parent those children in safe and sustainable communities. [SisterSong]
That’s the vision, the big overarching lifeforce that many of us in birthwork work towards every day, with every birth we attend.
And, we know that the roads to get there are many and varied, just like the journey that every birthing person takes might look a little different — c-sections and vaginal deliveries are all valid and “natural” forms of delivery.
Change work requires the same: be clear-eyed and blue-skyed about your vision, make it compelling enough that you will work towards it every day for as long as it takes, make it collective enough that you wish it for your friends and co-conspirators as well as your enemies.
Then: hold loosely to the process.
2. know when to intervene and when to sit back
Some births need intervention, absolutely. You will never hear me knock the wonders of modern medicine—pitocin is a phenomenal drug, and so too are maneuvers for shoulder dystocia, or interventions for postpartum hemorrhage or amniotic fluid embolisms. (I cut my teeth working maternal death prevention—trust me when I say, blessed are the interventions.)
AND ALSO, midwives know that many births don’t require the level of intervention we put on them. Don’t start with interventions; start from a baseline of a safe progress. Intervene to mitigate harm, but do not intervene out of a misplaced fear or a lack of control. Surgery is tool of last resort, not a first-line intervention.
So in change work too—let the work progress as it needs to first. Build containers of safety; develop your process of intervention; have your checklists for when you will intervene and when you will sit back. Communicate it thoroughly, and practice informed consent for those decisions.
3. never underestimate the power of witnessing and storytelling
In birthwork, we know that the delivery of a safe and healthy baby is both the end of one thing and also the beginning of something much bigger and more complex.
Once the baby arrives, most people celebrate and walk away—what else is there to talk about? But birth stories are some of the most powerful we have.
What went well? What didn't? What was life-saving, what was traumatic—and what was both life-saving and traumatic, simultaneously?
Stories need space to breathe, and stories need witnesses.
In changework too, we may have stories of celebration and stories of grief; we have stories that transform and stories that are told the exact same way. We have our creation myths and our fables of destruction.
Tell the story of your group’s change as many times as it needs to be told. Bear witness to yours and to others’ versions.
Not sure when to intervene and when to let your team’s change progress? I’d love to help. Tell me your changemaking story here.