Birth Day - International Childbirth Education Association

Featured Educator
Chris Maricle
What was it like to give birth in
1978? In Tulsa, Oklahoma, it meant
that only one hospital in the city allowed
fathers to be present for birth,
as long as it wasn’t a cesarean. It meant
that women were told to gain no more
than 25 pounds and to give up salt. It
meant that most women were routinely
given spinal block anesthesia just as
their babies crowned, and the babies
were delivered with forceps to “protect
their heads.” Twilight sleep, using scopolamine,
was still used. The episiotomy
rate was well over 90%. It meant
that rooming-in was allowed only with
a doctor’s permission. All babies were
routinely given sugar water or formula
and brought to the parent’s room every
four hours. Childbirth classes were usually
held in the instructor’s home, with
many physicians advising their patients
to stay away from them because, as one
doctor put it, “they just want you to
squat out in a field.”
This is the world of birth I entered
when I became a childbirth educator.
As a former teacher, I had taken
birth classes through an ICEA member
group, and those classes had made a
profound impression on me. What a
difference my training had made in
the birth of my son! I had managed to
have one of the earliest unmedicated
“Lamaze” births the hospital had seen,
despite the challenge of back labor.
Afterward, the ICEA group asked me
to become one of their instructors. I
remember thinking I would do this for
knew this was
a goal I wanted
to achieve.
With my
friends Cheryl
Coleman and
Denise Wheatley,
I spent
many hours
studying for the exam. I’ll never forget
my excitement at receiving my ICCE
designation! I have since earned my
certification as an ICEA doula (ICD)
and as an approved trainer (IAT.)
ICEA still means a great deal to
me because it provided me with research-based
information and support
when the medical community in my
area was unsupportive. ICEA has given
me a network of other birth professionals,
a means to verify my knowledge
and skills, and many friends.
During my years as a childbirth
educator, I have taught in many locations
including my home, my church,
physicians’ offices, medical clinics, and
a hospital. I have seen visual aids go
from homemade posters to16 millimeter
film to VCR tapes to DVD’s—and
now online learning. I have seen hospitals
change to a more family-centered
approach. I’ve even taught the second
generation—some of my “Lamaze
babies” have come to me for classes. I’m
fond of saying I will continue teaching
as long as I can still squat—and get back
up!
“a few months” to give me something
to do and to help out a few expectant
families. Several thousand families and
thirty-one years later, I still have a passion
for families, birth, and parenting!
By the time my second and third
sons were born during the 1980’s,
hospital policies were changing. I gave
birth in an alternate birthing center
which was located in a hospital (the
hospital where I still teach!) During
that time, home birth, water birth,
and “gentle birth” were being tried.
Once again the techniques which I had
taught to so many proved their worth
to me, as I had back labor and posterior
babies each time. I delivered using
a “birthing chair,” which was revolutionary
at the time—no one had ever
heard of a birth ball! ICEA’s support
of family-centered maternity care had
impacted the hospitals in Tulsa, and
all of them had adopted more familyfriendly
policies.
My first ICEA Convention was
in 1982 in Knoxville, Tennessee at the
ICEA Regional Conference. This contact
with other educators who shared
my passion for natural birth led to my
interest in working for ICEA. I became
the Oklahoma ICEA State Coordinator
and the first Photo Editor of the
International Journal of Childbirth
Education. Later on, I served two terms
on the ICEA Board as the US Midwestern
Director.
When ICEA developed a certification
program for childbirth educators, I continued on page 9
Volume 24 Number 4 December 2009 | International Journal of Childbirth Education | 7